English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 04/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.november04.22.htm

News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006
Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006

Bible Quotations For today
John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax-collectors and the prostitutes believed him and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him”.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 21/28-32/:”‘What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, “Son, go and work in the vineyard today.” He answered, “I will not”; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, “I go, sir”; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?’ They said, ‘The first.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, the tax-collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax-collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him”.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 03-04/2022
What About The Fate Of Those Who lack faith and worship money?/Elias Bejjani/November 03/2022
Archdiocese of Toronto: Assisted suicide and Euthanasia.
Lebanon Saw Alarming Decline in Press Freedom under Aoun
Al-Rahi calls for 'UN-sponsored conference' to resolve Lebanese conflict
Parliament decides caretaker government can run Lebanon
MPs say caretaker govt. legitimate as Berri sets presidential vote session
Parliament discusses Aoun's letter as Kataeb, Tajaddod, Change MPs walk out
What happened during today's parliamentary session?
Bassil: Mikati kept country without govt. for 4 months without talking to us
Constitutional Council dismisses four more electoral appeals
Credit Libanais heist ends with arrest of 3 depositors and lawyer
Bou Saab: Border deal cannot easily be cancelled if Netanyahu wins
Lebanon-Israel deal a landmark but with limits, experts say
From fake favas to 'smuggler sheep': How captagon is trafficked
Captagon connection: Lebanese, Syrians and Saudis
Lebanon needs a true election to find its next president
Lebanon faces an unprecedented power vacuum/Sami Moubayed/Gulf News/November 03/2022
Can The Christians Rule Lebanon After Aoun?/Hussam Itani/Asharq Al Awsat/November 03/2022
The Turkey-Lebanon nexus that may confront Netanyahu/Seth J. Frantzman/The Jerusalem Post/November 03/2022

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 03-04/2022
Pope arrives on first trip to Bahrain, with rights in spotlight
Pope Francis urges 'safe conditions' for workers in Gulf visit
Israel counts last votes as Netanyahu's majority firms up
Israeli far-rightist vows to impose order under new Netanyahu government
UK urges all Israeli parties to respect minorities
Four Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in separate incidents
As Israel's far right parties celebrate, Palestinians shrug
Hamas Operations Continue Unhindered in Turkey
Saudi ally UAE undertook a secret mission to Riyadh that backed Biden's view on OPEC oil production, report says
U.S. imposes sanctions on oil smuggling network backing Iran's Quds Force, Hezbollah
Cleric killed in restive Iranian city, protests rage on
Clashes erupt near Iran's capital as ongoing protests flare
Iran: Criticism Mounts over Brutal Crackdown... Khamenei Points to ‘Clear American Role’
Republican Senator Criticizes Biden’s Policy towards Tehran
Iran plans to supply Russia with arms ‘unacceptable’: NATO chief
Russians try to subdue Ukrainian towns by seizing mayors
Zelenskiy says he will not take part in G20 summit if Putin does
Russian ambassador has 'evidence' UK special forces involved in attack on Black Sea fleet
Ukraine capable of retaking Kherson from Russia -Pentagon chief
Russian lawmaker who called for an end to Ukraine war injured in mysterious circumstances, reports say
G7 foreign ministers set to grapple with Ukraine war, China

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 03-04/2022
Germany Selling Critical Infrastructure to China/Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/November 03/2022
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in Iraq’s New Cabinet...It remains to be seen whether the Iraqi honeymoon continues./Hussain Abdul-Hussain/The National Interest//November 03/2022
Biden Administration Backs Qatar Lobby/Armin Rosen/The Tablet/November 03/2022
Iranian protesters will not forget West’s failure to support them/Khaled Abou Zahr/Arab News/November 03/2022

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on November 03-04/2022
What About The Fate Of Those Who lack faith and worship money?
Elias Bejjani/November 03/2022
وماذا عن مصير الذين ضعف إيمانهم ويعبدون ثروات الأرض الترابية
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/43601/elias-bejjani-who-are-you-are-you-yourself/
Many people do not recognize consciously who they really are, and willingly and viciously hide behind fake faces, or let us say they put on deceiving masks.
Why? because they hate themselves, and mostly burdened with devastating inferiority complexes.
These chameleon like-people do not trust or respect themselves, have no sense of gratitude what so ever, lack faith in God and worship money.
Most of them were initially poor but suddenly became rich.
Instead of investing their riches that are graces from God in helping others and making them happy, especially those of their family members, they alienate themselves from every thing that is related to human feelings, and forget what is actual love, and that love is Almighty God.
They fall into temptation, live in castles of hatred, ruminate on grudges and contemplate revenge.
Not only that, but they start to venomously and destructively envy any one who is happy, respected and descent, but Evilly they use their riches and influence to inflict pain and misery on others.
They become mere sadists and enjoy pain of others, especially pain and suffering of those who are their family members that refuse to succumb and become evil like them
When we look around where ever we are it is very easy to identify many people who are of this evil nature.
The Question is, how they end?
They end paying for all their destructive and vicious acts, if not on this earth, definitely on the Day Of Judgment.
May Almighty God safeguard us from such evil people.
NB: The Above Piece was initially published on August 02/2016. It is republished today with minor changes

Archdiocese of Toronto: Assisted suicide and Euthanasia.
November 03/2022
"It is up to every Canadian to foster a culture of care and love for one another. The answer is not assisted death in its many forms; it is accompanying our family, our friends and even strangers to assist them in life, recognizing the inherent dignity of every person."
- Cardinal Thomas Collins​, February 25, 2020
In June 2016, the federal government of Canada passed legislation that legalized access to assisted suicide and euthanasia. In March 2021, the government announced changes that removed many of the safeguards in the original legislation, while also opening access to those who did not have a foreseeable natural death.
With healthcare systems pushed to the brink, the removal of these safeguards in addition to the expansion of eligibility of what is referred to as “medical assistance in dying”, the lives of the most vulnerable people – the sick and the disabled – are in great jeopardy.
As Catholics, we know that each life is precious and should be loved and cared for at all stages and in all conditions. The weakest and most defenseless need access to the greatest amount of love and care rather than being allowed, sometimes encouraged, to preemptively end their own lives.
How can you help?
Pray - Please keep in your prayers all who are sick and suffering, and for those who may be considering euthanasia. Pray too for those who care for the sick, especially those who work in palliative care and tend to the needs of people near the end of their lives.

Lebanon Saw Alarming Decline in Press Freedom under Aoun
Beirut - Thaer Abbas/Asharq Al Awsat/November 03/2022
Lebanon witnessed an alarming drop in the “world press freedom rating” under the rule of former President Michel Aoun, whose term ended on Monday. His six-year term witnessed more 801 violations against media and cultural freedoms, revealed a report by the SKeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom at the Samir Kassir Foundation. It said Lebanon’s ranking approached the level of tyrannical and police states in wake of the escalation in repressive practices and violations against freedom of expression. The 20th World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Lebanon ranked 98 in 2016 but fell 32 places to 130 out of 180 countries in 2022. The violations ranged from assassinations, armed attacks against media properties, journalists and activists by official and unofficial parties, the summoning and interrogation of journalists and activists, threats and bullying, the filing of lawsuits, official and unofficial censorship of cultural works and activities, blocking of e-content, the jailing of journalists, and the issuing of verdicts by non-competent courts, such as the military court. The practices also included the excessive use of force and unjustified violence against demonstrators, photographers, journalists and correspondents. The report further underlined the major violations committed against journalists, activists and even citizens who were summoned, detained and questioned over tweets or posts on social media and other online platforms on charges of insulting the president. It did not mention violations committed by Aoun’s supporters, such as “breaking into media headquarters, bullying and disinformation campaigns, or physical assault on reporters and photographers, all of which are practices carried out by most of the parties in the ruling system in Lebanon,” the center revealed. The report stressed that “this systematic repressive approach, which was adopted by the political authority in cooperation with the security services and public prosecutions, was aimed at silencing all who criticize the politicians in the country.”

Al-Rahi calls for 'UN-sponsored conference' to resolve Lebanese conflict
Naharnet/November 3, 2022
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi has called for a special conference under the auspices of the United Nations to resolve the disagreement between the Lebanese parties. "As long as the officials are not ready to sit together to resolve their disagreements, I have called for a special conference," al-Rahi told LBCI. He added that it is not possible to agree on a person. "The agreement can only be reached by voting and holding consultations.""they remembered to have a dialogue when we reached the vacuum, they'd rather go to parliament and vote," he said. Meanwhile al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Thursday that al-Rahi had pressed in the past two weeks the Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement leaders to reach an inter-Christian agreement that would facilitate the agreement with the rest of the Lebanese parties on a new president. The daily said that al-Rahi also discussed with Amal and Hezbollah the presidential issue. The Shiite Duo told him that a confrontational candidate would obstruct the election and that Amal and Hezbollah would support a Christian consensus on a presidential candidate, al-Akhbar said.

Parliament decides caretaker government can run Lebanon
Najia Houssari/Arab News/November 03/2022
BEIRUT: The Lebanese Parliament has decided that the caretaker government headed by Najib Mikati can be handed the powers of the presidency amid the leadership vacuum, according to constitutional principles. Former President Michel Aoun sent a letter to parliament on Sunday, 24 hours before the end of his term, asking MPs to withdraw confidence in Mikati’s government. He argued that it has no legitimacy and should not assume the duties of the presidency. Parliament held a session to discuss the letter on Thursday. Some MPs believed that the correspondence was pointless given that the Lebanese constitution gives the government, even a caretaker one, the right to run the country in the light of a presidential vacuum. They stressed that the priority is to elect a president, not discuss governments.

MPs say caretaker govt. legitimate as Berri sets presidential vote session
Naharnet/November 3, 2022
Parliament recommended Thursday that cabinet continue its work in caretaker capacity after it discussed a letter by ex-President Michel Aoun concerning the resignation of the caretaker cabinet. The caretaker cabinet can only convene in extraordinary cases, parliament said. "The reluctance to form a cabinet was a major blow to the constitution and everyone agreed today that cabinet can no longer meet unless there’s an emergency," Free Patriotic Movement Jebran Bassil said in a press conference after the session. Al-Kataeb MPs, the Change MPs and MPs Ashraf Rifi and Michel Mouawad walked out of the session and said that parliament must only convene to elect a new president. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called for an election session on Thursday, November 10. He said he hoped these sessions won't turn into a "theatrical show."The date of the election session, a week from now, would give the MPs time for consultations, Bassil said. Berri had considered a national dialogue to choose a president but then backed down from the idea, as the FPM and the Lebanese Forces refused it. Media reports said that Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab suggested to replace the national dialogue with consultations and that Berri asked him to proceed with this initiative.

Parliament discusses Aoun's letter as Kataeb, Tajaddod, Change MPs walk out
Naharnet/November 3, 2022
Parliament convened Thursday to discuss a letter by ex-President Michel Aoun concerning the resignation of the caretaker cabinet. The session will not be broadcast to the public, and media reports expected it to be fiery. Al-Kataeb, the Change MPs and MPs Ashraf Rifi and Michel Mouawad considered the session to be unconstitutional and walked out after voicing their opinion at the beginning of the session. MP Melhem Khalaf said that the constitution clearly states that parliament must convene to elect a new president and that the election sessions must be the parliament's top priority. The MPs considered that until the election of a new president, no other matters are supposed to be discussed. Aoun in his letter said that caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati was "uninterested" in forming a new cabinet to deal with Lebanon's myriad problems and called on him to resign. Before leaving his post, he signed a decree "accepting the resignation" of the caretaker cabinet. "The session is unconstitutional regardless of the content of the letter," Khalaf said, while MP Ashraf Rifi considered the content to be sectarian and "venomous." "Aoun is no longer our President, so what is the point of discussing this letter," he said. While it's not the first time that Lebanon's parliament has failed to appoint a successor by the end of the president's term, this will be the first time that there will be both no president and a caretaker cabinet with limited powers. Although the constitution "doesn't say explicitly that the caretaker government can act if there is no president, logically, constitutionally, one should accept that because the state and institutions should continue to function according to the principle of the continuity of public services," constitutional expert Wissam Lahham said. Many MPs who attended the session also considered that electing a new president should be the Parliament's priority, except of course for the Free Patriotic Movement MPs after their chief Jebran Bassil blamed Berri for not considering the letter more urgent and for taking too long to discuss it. He said Berri should have called for parliament to convene last Monday, instead of today, Thursday. "Parliament must only convene to elect a new president," al-Kataef chief MP Sami Gemayel said. While Hezbollah and Amal MPs blame the opposition MPs for naming a "confrontational" candidate and accuse them of obstructing the election of a president who can actually secure the needed votes, the opposition MPs blame Hezbollah, Amal and the FPM for obstructing the vote by casting blank ballots and leaving the session before the second round which leads to a lack of quorum. "Those who are boycotting the election sessions are responsible of the vacuum," said MP and presidential candidate Michel Mouawad before the session.

What happened during today's parliamentary session?
Naharnet/November 3, 2022
The futile debate between caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Free Patriotic chief Jebran Bassil over who of the two obstructed the government formation, who should have named the ministers and why wouldn't the FPM MPs give their confidence to Mikati's government, led Thursday to another dispute in parliament as the MPs discussed the legitimacy of the caretaker government. As parliament convened to discuss a letter by former President Michel Aoun over the legitimacy of the caretaker government, Mikati said that he would have stepped down only if Bassil hadn't called for it. "Because you wanted that, I did not step down," he said. But Bassil did not only argue with Mikati, he also argued with Lebanese Forces MP Sethrida Geagea who interrupted Bassil to say that LF chief Samir Geagea is the Christian president chosen by the people. "Don't disrupt me," Bassil said.
And as some MPs considered that Aoun's letter would incite sectarian strife, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said that he would never accept any sectarian discussion and that "God willing, the intentions are good."He added that parliament had discussed in the past similar letters, and that "nothing bad had happened."

Bassil: Mikati kept country without govt. for 4 months without talking to us
Naharnet /November 3, 2022
Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Thursday reminded that caretaker PM Najib Mikati had said that there was “no need to form a government,” describing it as a “dangerous constitutional precedent.”“He set the condition of obtaining (our) confidence in order to form the government, although his designation did not win (our) confidence, which means that he had decided not to form a government,” Bassil said after a parliamentary session dedicated to discussing ex-President Michel Aoun’s letter on the legitimacy of the caretaker cabinet.“The unique situation we’re living resulted from the fact that Mikati did not find his interest in forming the government and did not also step down, deliberately plunging us into governmental vacuum,” Bassil charged. Moreover, the FPM chief said that all parties admitted in Thursday’s session that “the cabinet can no longer convene unless there is an emergency, on the condition of the approval of all components.”He also emphasized that the FPM will not tolerate “hegemony” on it in the issues of cabinet formation and the presidential election. “Mikati voiced important remarks in the session by saying that President Aoun had informed him from the very first day that our bloc would not grant confidence to the government, and we also repeated this during our meeting with him, so why did he keep the country without a government for four months without forming a government nor talking to us about the issue of confidence? How does he accept being designated without conformity to the National Pact and rejects forming a government unless he is granted confidence that would ensure conformity to the National Pact?” Bassil wondered.

Constitutional Council dismisses four more electoral appeals
Naharnet /November 3, 2022
The Constitutional Council on Thursday rejected four more appeals against some results of the May 15 parliamentary elections. At a press conference, Council chief Judge Tannous Meshleb announced that the four appeals that were dismissed are the following:
- Zeina Monzer vs. MP Faysal al-Sayegh (Druze, Beirut II) and MP Waddah al-Sadek (Sunni, Beirut II)
- Elie Charbachi vs. MP Cynthia Zarazir (Minorities, Beirut I)
- Josephine Zgheib vs. MP Farid Haykal al-Khazen (Maronite, Keserwan)
- Amal Abu Zeid vs. MP Saeed al-Asmar (Maronite, Jezzine)
Hoping to issue rulings on the remaining six appeals “within two weeks,” Meshleb lamented that “power cuts” are the “biggest problem” that the Council is facing.
“We will continue our work within the available capabilities,” he pledged. The Council had on October 20 dismissed five appeals filed against the electoral wins of the MPs Elias Khoury, Bilal al-Hosheimi, Saeed al-Asmar, Jamil Abboud and Firas Hamdan.

Credit Libanais heist ends with arrest of 3 depositors and lawyer
Naharnet/November 3, 2022
Security forces arrested at dawn Thursday the three depositors Ibrahim Baydoun, Ali al-Saheli and Catherine al-Ali as well as prominent lawyer and activist Rami Ollaik for their storming Wednesday of Credit Libanais bank in Hazmieh, the National News Agency said. Security forces also safely evacuated the bank employees who had been held as hostages. The detainees were then taken to the Justice Palace in Baabda for interrogation. The depositors Baydoun and Saheli had managed to obtain $55,000 from the bank on Wednesday. But al-Jadeed TV reported that the money was eventually seized by security forces at the request of Attorney General Ghassan Khoury. “Khoury is not opposed to giving the money to the depositors or their families” after the investigations, al-Jadeed added, noting that the negotiations between the depositors, security forces and the bank had lasted for 15 hours.
The Lebanese Depositors Association meanwhile staged a sit-in outside Baabda’s Justice Palace in solidarity with the detainees.

Bou Saab: Border deal cannot easily be cancelled if Netanyahu wins
Agence France Presse/November 3, 2022
Lebanon has secured "American guarantees" that its maritime border deal with Israel cannot be easily scrapped should Benjamin Netanyahu return to the Israeli premiership, Beirut's chief negotiator said. Israel and Lebanon struck a U.S.-brokered sea border agreement last month that opens up lucrative offshore gas fields for the neighbors that remain technically at war. Hawkish former Israeli premier Netanyahu, who on Wednesday appeared on the cusp of returning to power, has staunchly opposed the deal, dismissing it as an "illegal ploy" and warning he would not be bound by its terms. "We obtained sufficient American guarantees that this deal cannot easily be cancelled," said Lebanon's negotiator Elias Bou Saab, who is also deputy parliament speaker.
If Netanyahu wants to withdraw from the deal, then "he will withdraw from an agreement with the U.S.," Bou Saab told AFP, noting that Israel and Lebanon had signed separate deals with the United States. He said Washington had warned that "the withdrawal of any party would have great consequences on both countries." "When Netanyahu says that he wants to withdraw, this means that he will be facing the international community," Bou Saab added. In Washington, State Department spokesman Ned Price stopped short of confirming guarantees, but said the deal was "in the interests of Israel and Lebanon." "Because it was in the interest of both countries it was in the profound interest of the United States. We seek to see a more stable, a more integrated region," he told reporters."Scarce resources, we know from history, have the potential to create tensions and potentially to escalate tensions into, in some cases, the brink of conflict." U.S. President Joe Biden had hailed the "historic" deal, which comes as Western powers clamor to open up new energy production and reduce vulnerability to supply cuts from Russia.
Netanyahu, who has called the deal a "capitulation agreement", has not commented on it since Tuesday's Israeli elections.
Initial results showed his alliance with the extreme right taking a narrow lead.

Lebanon-Israel deal a landmark but with limits, experts say
Associated Press/November 3, 2022
U.S. mediators tried for more than a decade to broker a maritime border agreement between Lebanon and Israel. Finally, the elements fell into place for a landmark deal between two countries officially — and sometimes actively — at war since 1948. Russia's war in Ukraine this year and Europe's resulting energy crisis have increased demand for natural gas, which the deal will enable Lebanon and Israel to extract from the Mediterranean Sea. At the same time, Lebanon's spiraling economic crisis, impending Israeli elections and rising tensions between Israel and Hezbollah added more incentive to finalize the deal. The long-awaited agreement inked last week was hailed as a game changer by officials in Lebanon, Israel and the United States. It is far from a peace deal, but proponents say the shared interest of exploiting the gas will make it less likely the two longtime enemies will go to war.
Hezbollah, which fought a destructive war with Israel in 2006, has backed the deal. Lebanese hope it will help save their country from financial meltdown.
Still, analysts say the payoff is likely to be more limited than all three players' ambitious projections.
"I don't think it's like the Abraham Accords, where it would change the political fabric in the region," said Randa Slim, director of the Conflict Resolution and Track II Dialogues Program at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, referring to a series of deals brokered by the Trump administration in 2020 to normalize relations between Israel and several Arab countries. "It did not change the character of the relationship between Lebanon and Israel," she said.
The U.S. first began trying to broker a maritime border in 2010 after significant gas discoveries in Israeli waters and a U.S. study estimating 122 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas off the coasts of Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Gaza.
In late 2020, the parties agreed on a framework for indirect negotiations mediated by the U.S. and held at the headquarters of U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon. Simply agreeing on the structure of the talks took three years given the sensitivities, particularly for Lebanese officials anxious to avoid appearing to recognize Israel. Both sides then came in with "maximalist demands," and the talks floundered, said David Schenker, former U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs under then-President Donald Trump, who took over mediation at that point. "It wasn't really a priority for me," he told The Associated Press. "I basically said, if the Lebanese want it, that's fine. If they don't want it that's fine too. I'm not going to be doing shuttle diplomacy on this," said Schenker, now a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank widely seen as pro-Israel. With the Biden administration, negotiations started again, mediated by Israeli-born U.S. Senior Advisor for Energy Security Amos Hochstein, whose appointment caused some criticism in Lebanon.
Talks started slowly, until February, when Russia invaded Ukraine, changing the picture. Both Lebanese and Israeli officials have acknowledged that the ensuing global demand for gas sped up talks. Lebanon badly needs a windfall. Its economic crisis has plunged three-quarters of its population into poverty.
However, experts say a fledgling gas industry is unlikely to be a panacea. A study by the Lebanese Oil and Gas Initiative and other groups two years ago estimated that potential oil and gas revenues likely won't exceed $8 billion, just 10% of Lebanon's gargantuan public debt. "This is definitely a positive step forward, but not on the scale that is being portrayed to the public," said the Initiative's interim Executive Director Amer Mardam-Bey. "We're not going to wake up tomorrow, and everything will be fine and the debt is gone."
The amount of gas under Lebanese waters is unknown. Some in Lebanon have criticized the government for backing off a proposed border containing part of the Karish field, which is known to contain gas, and accepting a deal that gives it the Qana field, where reserves have not been proven.
Mardam-Bey says it's likely that there is gas in the field but how much can't be known before drilling.
There is also a danger that any gas revenues will be siphoned off by corruption. Lebanon for decades allocated hefty contracts to politically connected companies.
"If that's not changed, then those revenues will be subject to the same channels of clientelism (and) patronage," said Sami Atallah, director of The Policy Initiative, a Beirut-based think tank.
In Israel, the deal's proponents have touted potential security and economic benefits. "It establishes a new security equation with regard to the sea and the strategic assets of the state of Israel," Defense Minister Benny Gantz said recently.
The agreement clears the way for Israel to begin drilling in the Karish gas field. Earlier this year, Hezbollah threatened to strike ships operating in the field if Israel began extracting gas before reaching a deal with Lebanon. Hezbollah's chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that Hezbollah forced Israel to make concessions. Israeli detractors of the deal accuse Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid of surrendering to Hezbollah's threats. Schenker acknowledged that the final deal was an accomplishment, but he questioned whether it would actually deter war, suggesting Hezbollah could be emboldened.
The outcome of Israel's national elections on Tuesday could further complicate the picture. Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who appears poised to make a comeback, previously vowed to "neutralize" the maritime border deal.
However, a senior U.S. administration official familiar with the negotiations said the White House believes that Netanyahu would be hesitant to walk away from a deal that would be a boon to the Israeli economy and security. The official requested anonymity to discuss the administration's deliberations.
In a recent radio interview, Netanyahu said that if he became prime minister again, he would treat the Lebanon deal just as he did the Oslo agreements reached with the Palestinians in the 1990s. Those agreements were never canceled but were also never fully implemented and are moribund today.
Efraim Inbar, president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, an Israeli think tank, wrote that Israel in the negotiations had failed to take advantage of Lebanon's "great weakness." He argued that Lebanon needs gas revenues from the disputed territory far more than Israel. Slim described the deal as a "win in foreign policy" for the Biden administration, but a limited one.
"There are no more big deals to be had in the Middle East," she said. "There are small deals, transactionalism."

From fake favas to 'smuggler sheep': How captagon is trafficked
Agence France Presse/November 3, 2022
Stitched into the bellies of "smuggler sheep" or loaded onto drones and ultralight planes, captagon is crossing the Middle East's borders in ever more creative ways.
Smugglers have hidden pills in huge tubs of tomato paste, packed them in hollowed out pomegranates or even painstakingly stuffed them, one by one, into pitted olives. The pills have also been hidden in fake fava beans, artificial oranges and ornate stone frescoes. The creativity of smugglers continues to astound the authorities, with seizures more often the result of tip-offs than the technological prowess of customs checks.
Here are some of the most unusual smuggling methods foiled in recent years:
- Pomegranates -
More than 5.3 million pills were found by the Saudi authorities in a large shipment of pomegranates in April 2021, with the drugs stuffed inside some of the fruit. The seizure led to a Saudi ban on fruit and vegetable imports from Lebanon.
- Live sheep -
Fastening weapons or drugs to livestock to cross borders is an age-old smuggling trick. Latin American cartels took this a step further by stitching bags of cocaine and heroin into dogs and other animals. In November 2021 Kuwaiti authorities found 17 kilos of captagon pills inside live imported sheep.
- Fake oranges -
Lebanese authorities found nine million pills hidden in fake plastic oranges heading to the Gulf in December 2021. A week earlier, 1.1 million pills stuffed into fake lemons were intercepted by Emirati customs.
- Stuffed olives -
Jordan's anti-narcotics squad arrested a smuggler with 37,000 pills concealed in pitted green olives in April 2015. Syria's drug unit arrested a man in December last year who had stuffed 160,000 pills into olives after stoning thousands of them.
- Tomato paste lids -
Saudi authorities found more than two million pills hidden in the hollowed-out lids of tomato paste jars in July 2021.
- Trolley wheels -
In the largest ever seizure of captagon, Malaysian customs found 94.8 million pills at Port Klang in March 2021 hidden in a shipment of trolley wheels. The drugs were not intended for the Malaysian market. Three weeks later, another three million pills were found in the same port hidden in a shipment of door parts.
- Microlight plane -
Iraqi security forces opened fire on a microlight aircraft near the Kuwaiti border in June 2022. The pilot got away but one million captagon pills were found in the abandoned aircraft.

Captagon connection: Lebanese, Syrians and Saudis
Agence France Presse/November 3, 2022
A decade of appalling civil war has left Syria fragmented and in ruins but one thing crosses every front line: a drug called captagon. The stimulant -- once notorious for its association with Islamic State fighters -- has spawned an illegal $10 billion industry that not only props up the pariah regime of President Bashar al-Assad, but many of his enemies. It has turned Syria into the world's latest narco state, and sunk deep roots in neighboring Lebanon as its economy has collapsed. Captagon is now by far Syria's biggest export, dwarfing all its legal exports put together, according to estimates drawn from official data by AFP. An amphetamine derived from a once-legal treatment for narcolepsy and attention disorder, it has become a huge drug in the Gulf, with Saudi Arabia by far the biggest market. AFP interviewed smugglers, a fixer who puts together multi-million dollar deals, and 30 serving and former law enforcement officers from Syria and beyond, as well as diplomats and drug experts in a bid to grasp the scope of the phenomenon. Given the danger of speaking publicly -- particularly for those inside the trade -- the majority asked for their identities to be protected.
I can work for days
In Saudi Arabia, captagon is often talked of as a party drug, but its hold extends far beyond the gilded lifestyles of the kingdom's wealthy elite. Cheap, discreet and less taboo than alcohol, many poorer Saudis and migrant workers go to work on the drug. "I can work for two or three days non-stop, which has doubled my earnings and is helping me pay off my debts," said Faisal, a skinny 20-year-old newlywed from a working-class background, who spends 150 riyals a week ($40) on the pills. "I finish my first job exhausted in the early hours of the morning," but the drug helps him push through to drive for a ride-hailing service. An Egyptian construction worker told AFP that he began taking the pills after his boss secretly slipped some into his coffee so he could work faster and longer. "In time my colleagues and I became addicted," he added.The retail price of a pill varies wildly from $25 for the premium tablets sold to the Saudi jetset to low quality adulterated pills that go for a dollar. Many begin their journey to the Gulf in the lawless badlands between Syria and Lebanon.
Border barons and tribal networks -
Hidden behind dark glasses and a mask in the middle of a vineyard in the Bekaa Valley, a Lebanese fixer and trafficker told AFP how he organized the shipments. "Four or five big names typically partner up and split the cost of a shipment of say $10 million to cover raw material, transport and bribes," he said.
"The cost is low and the profits high," he said, adding that even if only one shipment out of 10 gets through, "you are still a winner". "There's a group of more than 50 barons... They are one big web, Syrians, Lebanese and Saudis." While the captagon trade spans several countries, many key players have tribal ties, particularly through the Bani Khaled, a Bedouin confederation that reaches from Syria and Lebanon to Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.  A shipment can stay within the Bani Khaled's sphere of influence the whole way from manufacture in Syria to delivery in Saudi Arabia, said multiple sources, including a smuggler, an intelligence officer and Syrian army deserters.
The economics of the trade are dizzying.
More than 400 million pills were seized in the Middle East and beyond in 2021, according to official figures, with seizures this year set to top that. Customs and anti-narcotics officials told AFP that for every shipment they seize, another nine make it through. That means even with a low average price of $5 per tablet, and only four out of five shipments getting through, captagon is at least a $10 billion industry. With Syria the source of 80 percent of the world's supply, according to security services, the trade is at least worth three times its entire national budget.
Assad's brother -
The Syrian state is at the heart of the trade in Assad-controlled areas, narcotics experts say.
The shadowy network of warlords and profiteers Assad indebted himself to to win the war has benefited hugely from it, including Hezbollah, which experts say plays a significant role in protecting the trade along the Lebanese border. "Syria is in dire need of foreign currency, and this industry is capable of filling the treasury through a shadow economy from importing raw materials to manufacturing and finally exporting" the pills, an ex-Syrian government adviser now outside the country told AFP.  One major mover keeps coming up in all the AFP interviews -- Assad's much-feared brother Maher, the de facto head of Syria's elite unit, the 4th Division.  A dozen sources told AFP that the division was deeply involved in the trade, including smugglers, a regional law and order official, a former Syrian intelligence officer, a member of a tribe that smuggles captagon and a pharmaceutical industry insider.  The British Army-linked CHACR think tank and the independent Center for Operations Analysis and Research (COAR) have also pointed the finger at Assad's brother. The Syrian authorities did not reply to AFP requests for comment after being contacted at the United Nations and through the country's embassy in Paris. "Maher al-Assad is one of the main beneficiaries of the captagon trade," said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. "He receives his own share from the profit. Drug money has become a main source to pay the salaries of an armed group affiliated with the 4th Division," he added.
Some captagon labs get "the raw material directly from the 4th Division, sometimes in military bags", said a Syria monitor, with a trafficker telling AFP that it even supplied rebel groups opposed to the regime. The division controls large parts of the porous border with Lebanon that is key to the trade, with the Mediterranean port of Latakia another of its bastions. Caroline Rose, of the Washington-based Newlines Institute, said it has "played an active role in guarding, facilitating and running a lot of captagon in Homs and Latakia" and then "transporting shipments to state-owned ports".The Lebanese frontier, which has never been clearly demarcated, has long been a happy hunting ground for smugglers, with captagon operations now booming in the north. "Wadi Khaled is the new hub, the place is full of traffickers," a judicial source told AFP, referring to a remote northern border region where much of the population on the Lebanese side identifies as Syrian. At the height of the war, arms were smuggled into Syria through Wadi Khaled. Now captagon and migrants attempting to make the perilous crossing to Europe flow in the other direction.
Rebel involvement -
The southern Syrian provinces of Sweida and Daraa, which border Jordan, are other key smuggling routes to Saudi Arabia, with the latter also home to many drug labs. Sweida teems with gangs transporting captagon, with Bedouin tribes bringing consignments down from major production plants around Damascus and Homs. "The smuggling is organized by the tribes who live in the desert in coordination with over 100 small armed gangs," said Abu Timur, a spokesman for the local Al-Karama armed group. Across Syria the money to be made from captagon trumps old enmities. "Captagon brought together all the warring parties of the conflict... The government, the opposition, the Kurds and ISIS," the ex-Syrian government adviser said. Even in the north, home to the last pockets where rebel and jihadist groups are holding out against Assad, the drug has forged unlikely alliances. "I work with people in Homs and Damascus who receive the pills from 4th Division depots," a smuggler in the Turkish-dominated region told AFP. "My job is to distribute the pills here or to coordinate with rebel groups to send them to Turkey," he said. "This job is very dangerous and very easy at the same time."
The trafficker said he also sold pills to leaders from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham jihadist group that dominates the Idlib enclave in northwestern Syria. He said myriad groups working as Turkish proxies and under the rebel umbrella known as the Syrian National Army (SNA) had aggressively moved in on the captagon business recently. "The area is teeming with rebel groups. It's a jungle, everyone is hungry out there and wants to eat," he said. He said the new captagon kingpin in the region is Abu Walid Ezza, a commander from the Sultan Murad faction of the SNA. "He has very good relations with the 4th Division, since he used to be based in Homs," the trafficker said. "He brings excellent pills."The faction told AFP they had nothing to do with the trade. Turkish players are also deeply involved, said one regional judicial investigator. "Diethyl ether, a kind of chloroform, is one of the main precursors needed for (making) captagon, and most of it enters from Turkey," the source said.
Candy machine -
Beyond the chemicals, the biggest investment for a captagon lab is a tablet press or candy-making machine. One Chinese website even advertises a "captagon tablet press" for $2,500 that can spew out tens of thousands of pills an hour.  For a few dollars more you can get the pill stamps with captagon's trademark logo -- the two Cs that have earned it the nickname "Abu al-hilalain" (two crescent moons). Once the chemical precursors have been procured, it only takes 48 hours to set up a captagon manufacturing laboratory with relatively rudimentary equipment. Which means even when drug units swoop, the captagon cooks can quickly start working again. They have even been known to set up mobile labs in the back of utility vans, especially after a recent clampdown in eastern Lebanon.  The Syrian government also acts but most seizures "are nothing but pure farce... the enforcers are themselves the thieves," said a Syrian pharmaceutical company worker interviewed outside the country. Some pharma plants are also involved in the trade, he added.  Slick videos from Saudi Arabia's customs and police boast of how they are battling captagon with state-of-the-art detection technology and dog units. But senior security and judicial officials in the region told AFP that the traffickers are always a step ahead. "At (Lebanon's) Tripoli port, for example, the scanner always needs repairing on the wrong day, or is inadvertently switched off," said a senior Lebanese official. "And when arrests are made, the security services always bring the driver to court, the only guy who doesn't know anything," the official added. Corruption also helps to load the dice in the smugglers' favor. Several anti-narcotics officials told AFP that some senior officials were on the take and had even sold off seized drugs.
'Captagon king' –
"Captagon king" Hassan Dekko used to run his empire out of the Lebanese border village of Tfail, which sits at the tip of a tongue of land jutting into Syria north of Damascus. But Dekko, a binational with high-level political connections in both countries, was arrested in April last year after major captagon seizures.
In court documents obtained by AFP, Dekko denied any involvement in drug trafficking. But anti-narcotics chiefs in Lebanon claim that some of the businesses he owns, including a pesticide factory in Jordan, a car dealership in Syria and a fleet of tanker trucks, are common covers for drug barons.
However, a senior security official said Dekko's influence had been on the wane. Several security sources as well as deserters from the Syrian army described Syrian MP Amer Khiti, who is under US sanctions, as another major figure in the business. "Khiti is involved in smuggling captagon," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed, and he has also been named in CHACR and COAR reports. One of his workers told AFP that he had seen captagon being delivered to a warehouse near Damascus. "He is a good man. We don't care what he does, so long as he helps the people," the employee said.
"The Khiti family has been involved in this since before the war. They used to put pills in plastic bags and stitch them inside sheep" to smuggle them, he added.
Khiti could not be reached for comment.
- 'No smoking gun' -
With no end in sight to their economic and political crises, the fear is that captagon will become an even bigger pillar of life in Syria and Lebanon, where up to a fifth of the pills are produced. Multiple sources told AFP that the captagon barons have built strong political connections there.
"Syria became the global epicenter of captagon production by conscious choice," said Ian Larson, chief Syria analyst at the COAR political risk consultancy. With its economy crippled by war and sanctions, "Damascus had few good options", he added. From the Syrian regime officials and millionaire businessmen at the top of the chain down to the villagers and refugees employed to cook and conceal the drugs, captagon dollars get spread far and wide in both countries. "There is still no smoking gun directly linking Bashar al-Assad to the captagon industry, and we shouldn't necessarily expect to find one," said Larson, who has written extensively on the drug. On September 20, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an act with the catchy acronym CAPTAGON -- Countering Assad's Proliferation Trafficking And Garnering Of Narcotics Act -- but the drug has generally received scant attention in Western policy-making circles.
Meanwhile, both the dealers and those tracking them believe the captagon era is only just beginning. "The trade will never stop, generation after generation will keep working in it," the Lebanese fixer insisted. A senior judicial source agreed. "They are never convicted and the money is huge. Give me one reason why this would stop."

Lebanon needs a true election to find its next president
Lynn Zovighian/Arab News/November 03/2022
While the Lebanese Constitution defines governance mechanisms for state institutions, most state entities are personality-centered fiefdoms rather than institutional. For example, there is a historical national habit to fixate on the prime minister and not the government; the speaker of the house and not the parliament; and the president and not the presidency. The constitution also assumes that a person who holds a seat of power is governing based on an institutional mandate because that is what legitimate and competent rule ought to imply.
As per Article 49 of the constitution, the president of the republic is elected by parliament in two voting rounds: The first ballot requires a two-thirds majority, the second requires an absolute majority. Both require a quorum of MPs to turn up and vote. When there is insufficient attendance, this constitutional procedure can fall victim to the tyranny of the minority and parliament cannot assume its role as an electoral body. This national hamster wheel can continue with calls for sessions and intentional absence, hijacking the constitution.
Michel Aoun became president in 2016 at the 46th session of parliament after 45 attempts to vote in a new head of state had failed. It took more than two and a half years. As has become a national habit, a candidate won because a deal was struck. For a deal to go through, the interests of key powerbrokers must be empowered with measurable benefits. The loss of time helps build negotiating power. Emile Lahoud was a deal. Michel Suleiman was a deal. Aoun was a deal.
Also, as per the constitution, the ballot is secret. The parliamentary floor is not the deal room; members of parliament choose their candidate behind closed doors, in political consultations with realpolitik cost-benefit analysis. Some candidates are intentionally publicly withheld until the very last minute, during the voting round when parliament is in session with a quorum. The media and the people are not party to the intricacies of these discussions. The terms and conditions for a vote of confidence are often not disclosed.
But there is not only a death by governance, there is also a dearth of data. Candidates are not expected to present a platform with a studied action plan. They are not asked to participate in public due diligence. They are not required to present their knowledge and stress test their values and priorities. They do not need to be put to the test against other candidates. No meritocratic mechanism is constitutionally required, so why put one in place?
In other words, Lebanon has never experienced presidential elections. And the governance is so broken that the people do not even ask for it. The expectation is just not there. Because why pontificate when nothing will change? This old Lebanese adage also has a habitual track record. However, just because it might — perhaps — not be feasible to have a well-governed, transparent and professional election of the next president in Lebanon today, that does not mean we should not be asking for a better practice.
The Lebanese Constitution tells us that there is no direct accountability between people and president. With no popular vote, there is also no constituency data collection. The people exhibit data differently, by debating at the dinner table, postulating in the news, posting memes and political satire on social media, and bidding the exiting president farewell on the streets. But do MPs collect this data? Do they recognize that the people can hold them accountable to it?
Being a passive spectator of political commandments should no longer be enough for the Lebanese people, neither for those who have left nor those who are still at home. What if the people unequivocally demanded the full public disclosure of all constitutional and non-constitutional proceedings? What if they stood their ground until the plans of action of every nominated candidate were publicly presented? What if they became the agents of accountability and obligated their elected representatives to publicly explain their vote for the head of state of the next six years? The dynamic would change and a new citizen-led governance would be given the upper hand for the first time in our history.
So, who do we need as head of state for the Lebanon of tomorrow? The Lebanon of the next six years will be the result of a policy of no reform, no law and no order. Our families and children will never be so hungry and chronically malnourished. New poverty indicators will emerge from the ground up that are far beyond our darkest imagination. The Lebanese lira will be a memory of the past, with no new local currency regime to halt the destruction of value and no hard currency to pivot the country onto a new trajectory. Talent will never be so lost and broken, and whoever can self-expel themselves will do so.
The geopolitical encroachment of Iran, Syria, Turkey, Russia and Israel will leave Lebanon behind. Lebanon will become an irrelevant member of the international community, left to fall because no friend meaningfully joined forces with the Lebanese people. That is the Lebanon we are heading toward at full speed.
Being a passive spectator of political commandments should no longer be enough for the Lebanese people.
Baabda Palace is now empty and the next president of Lebanon is practically set up for failure. Who would want this job? Being presidential needs to take on a whole new meaning and a whole new way. It is not about electing a president in parliament and fueling national habitual fallacies. It is about rebuilding the presidency as a state institution; a constitutional asset that relieves the country of historical entrapment and gives life to near-death. It will not be enough for the next president to be a good human being and a stately leader. Only by closing Baabda Palace and living the same experiences as the people with no electricity, cholera in their water and no food at the table will the next president be a national team player that has a chance of getting it right for all of us.
*Lynn Zovighian is the co-founder and managing director of The Zovighian Partnership, a family-owned social investment platform that conducts community-centered research, designs and implements humanitarian and socioeconomic interventions. Twitter: @lynnzovighian

Lebanon faces an unprecedented power vacuum
Sami Moubayed/Gulf News/November 03/2022
First time in the country’s history both the presidency and premiership are left empty.Lebanon's outgoing President Michel Aoun vacated the palace of Baabda on Sunday, leaving a void at the top of the country
Minutes before leaving office on Sunday, President Michel Aoun of Lebanon signed a controversial decree dissolving the caretaker cabinet of Prime Minister Najib Mikati. He also demanded that Mikati is no longer considered prime minister-designate, having failed to form a new government since tasked last May. This leaves Lebanon with two vacancies at its most important posts, creating an unprecedent vacuum in the history of the country. This is not the first time, however, that Lebanon stands with no president. It happened before in November 2007 with the departure of Emille Lahhoud, lasting until the election of his successor Michel Suleiman in May 2008. It happened again at the end of Suleiman’s tenure in May 2014, this time lasting for more than two years, until Aoun was elected in October 2016. But it is the first time that both the presidency and premiership are left empty, at one of the worst moments in Lebanon’s history.
A ‘stolen’ country
The past six years have been marred with tremendous upheaval, starting with an anti-Aoun revolt in October 2019, followed by a collapse in banking sector ahead of Covid-19 and its painful lockdown. Then came the August 2020 mega-blast at the port of Beirut, which tore down half the city and killed over 200 people. More than two years later, nobody has been held accountable although a handful of officials have been charged with “criminal negligence,” including former prime minister Hassan Diab, a protégé of Aoun and his son-in-law, Gibran Bassil. Some of them were re-elected to parliament last May.
In his farewell speech, Aoun said that he leaves behind a country “stolen” by the oligarchy, failing to mention that it is also a bankrupt one, which defaulted on its foreign debt during his presidency, and has since locked the dollar deposits of its citizens, amid massive devaluation on its local currency that crossed the 35,000 LP benchmark to the US dollar in May 2022.
The banking crisis has sent thousands of Lebanese citizens into bankruptcy, eroding their already razor-thin reserves while triggering a series of back-to-back bank robberies during the last six months of Aoun’s terms. As if all of that was not enough, cholera is spreading rapidly throughout the country due to contamination of water and food. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there have been 381 confirmed cases since early October, topped with 17 deaths. To deal with these monumental challenges, Lebanon needs a strong president. Aoun’s supporters in the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) have persistently blocked the election of any candidate, insisting on the nomination of Gibran Bassil to succeed his father-in-law. They even made sure that no government is formed between May and October, unless Mikati pledged to support Bassil’s bid for president. Presidential elections were blocked, invoking a constitutional clause that says no president can be sworn-in unless there is a full-fledge government in power (which didn’t apply to that of Najib Mikati).
Impossible conditions
A series of impossible conditions were put forth that Mikati could not meet — like demanding to take 11 out of 24 portfolios, including strategic posts like the ministries of defence, interior, foreign affairs and energy. The Ministry of Energy carries added value now that the maritime borders agreement with Israel is signed and Lebanon is about to start drilling for natural gas in its territorial waters. When Mikati refused to comply, he was accused of hampering the cabinet formation process.
Ways forward
Mikati claims that Aoun’s forced dissolution of the cabinet is unconstitutional, a view seconded by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. Berri will convene parliament today to discuss Aoun’s final decree, hoping to overrule it despite pressure from the Aounist bloc of 21 MPs. It was Berri after all who had suggested that presidential powers ought to be transferred to the Muslim prime minister if no Christian president is elected before 31 October 2022. That raised the ire of Aoun and his team, given that it would have meant violating the National Pact of 1943, a gentlemen’s agreement which says that presidential office is reserved exclusively for a Maronite Christian. But given that the National Pact is an unwritten agreement, it has been violated before — famously by Aoun himself, when he assumed the premiership in 1988. Earlier, the Maronite Army Commander Fouad Shihab (later president of Lebanon) had been appointed prime minister in 1952, presiding over a military cabinet for two weeks. Meaning that if Mikati assumes presidential powers for an interim period, it would not be the end of the world for Lebanon. In fact, many see it as far better than two empty seats at the premiership and presidency.
**Sami Moubayed is a Syrian historian and former Carnegie scholar. He is also author of Under the Black Flag: At the frontier of the New Jihad.

Can The Christians Rule Lebanon After Aoun?
Hussam Itani/Asharq Al Awsat/November 03/2022
The presidential term of Michel Aoun, his party the Free Patriotic Movement, and his son-in-law Gebran Bassil is over. Characterizations of the past six years in which he ruled can be divided into two main categories: depreciation and demonization. Claims that he and his entourage are responsible for the unprecedented crisis in Lebanon are met with excuses and attempts to deflect responsibility for his failures, which are pinned on the “ruling clique” of corrupt politicians- everyone involved in running the country except for the ministers, deputies, and representatives of the Free Patriotic Movement.
Since his term began in 2016 and up until his pitiful speech on the thirtieth of October, Michel Aoun has not behaved like a president to all of Lebanon. His previous disappointments and expulsion from Baabda Palace in 1990 at the hands of the Syrian regime- enemies of the past who would go on to become allies- left deep psychological wounds. The general has plenty of trouble regulating his emotions and an abundance of psychological issues, which are evident in his speeches and rash and sharp reactions to all journalistic questions. A shaky character became president at a shaky time thanks to a deal between sides looking to make quick, immediate gains. Those who concluded the deal to bring Aoun to Baabda did so after having reached the conviction that it had no chance of challenging the status quo that emerged from the victory of Iran and its ally, Hezbollah, in the Syrian war. Michel Aoun was the suitable figure around for the haughty victor and the opportunistic vanquished without a project or vision.
It seems that these developments, despite their magnitude and gravity, do not answer the big questions around his presidency. These questions remain unanswered as the former president moves to his new home, from which he has pledged to continue his “struggle.” What does Aoun represent to Lebanon’s Christians, most of whom continue to support him despite the destruction he has left behind? One answer is that Aoun, with all his contradictions and shortcomings, as well as all the disasters he contributed to creating alongside the other Lebanese politicians, embodies the Christian response to what is seen as an attempt supported by several powers (Arabs, Muslims, Americans, and others) to seize not only the Maronite community’s hold on the most powerful position in the state and its political power in the country but also the historical narrative that affords the Christian community a privileged role in establishing Lebanon as a political entity, which should thus remain a refuge to them. It is possible, against this background, to understand the extreme hostility to the Taif Agreement, which ended the civil war but is seen as having stipulated a Muslim (Sunni) seizure of power, which is only legitimate if it is with the Christians.
This characterization begs another, more pressing question about the current state of affairs: can the Christians maintain their hold on power without Muslim support similar to that which Rafik Hariri had given to Elias Hrawi or that Hezbollah had given to Michel Aoun?
What we have seen over the past six years tells us that the next president can only be elected if he is approved, if not supported, by Hezbollah. Indeed, the two-and-a-half years Hezbollah spent disrupting the election of a president to impose its candidate, Aoun- after which its opponents succumbed- are still fresh in the memory.
Hezbollah’s control will only consolidate further, becoming, unless a radical change is seen, a kind of law accepted by those actually who elect the president.
In any case, the Christian political elites have gone frail, and the community now represents less than a third of Lebanon’s residents. The West has broken with the Christians, and they have broken with it, and those who represent them today seem like caricatures of their previous leaders. After their historical narrative turned into a joke, those who represent the Christians today know very well that “retrieving their rights-” i.e., turning back the clock to before the conclusion of the Taif Agreement- is not possible without an ally as powerful as Hezbollah.
On the other hand, any Christian candidate who objects to the armed party’s control of the country needs support from the Arab world and international community equivalent to provided by Hezbollah. This is not on the cards, as Lebanon has lost its regional and international functions and has become an afterthought. And so, we can expect Lebanon to decay further. Its society and what remains of its state institutions will disintegrate further as the suffering of its people parallels that of others around the world that do not stir the conscience of a world brimming with catastrophes and apathy.

The Turkey-Lebanon nexus that may confront Netanyahu - analysis
Seth J. Frantzman/The Jerusalem Post/November 03/2022
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-721330
The Turkey ties and the Lebanese mezze of problems are tied to wider challenges in the region. Netanyahu, if and when he forms a government, will need to deal with two potentially interlinked crises.
As Benjamin Netanyahu appears poised to return as prime minister, with an even stronger and potentially more stable coalition than in the past, he will face many foreign policy issues that he has dealt with before.
In many cases, these will be known quantities, such as close Israel-India ties, or managing the alliance with the US, working with the EU, the Abraham Accords and Greece and Cyprus.
However, two countries stand out as a nexus of problems: Turkey and Lebanon.
It’s worth mentioning before going on that obviously the Ukraine crisis and Russia’s invasion will be an issue for Netanyahu to deal with, but that is worth an entire discussion on its own. The Turkey-Lebanon nexus is an issue that is complex because the Lapid-Bennett government which is leaving office, has left Netanyahu with two pots on the stove.
Israel and Turkey: Old ties renewed
Israel and Turkey renewed diplomatic ties during the outgoing government’s time in office and in the last year there have been many high-profile visits. These were an unprecedented number of visits for such a short time. Israel’s President Isaac Herzog went to Turkey, and the Turkish foreign minister came to Israel, then Israel’s defense minister went to Turkey. These visits marked the first time that many of these kinds of meetings had taken place for a decade or more.
Ankara has been one of the most hostile countries to Israel in the last decade. Ankara’s ruling AKP party compared Israel to Nazi Germany numerous times in 2018 and 2019. Ankara hosted Hamas terror leaders and reports in foreign media said Hamas planned attacks from Turkey. In addition, the Mavi Marmara flotilla, destined for Gaza, was organized by far-right extremists in Turkey. When the Abraham Accords were announced, Ankara tried to sabotage them by threatening to break relations with the UAE. Turkey also tried to meddle in Greece-Cyprus-Israel ties.
However, in the last year and a half, Ankara has felt that it has few friends in the West and in Washington. It has pivoted and sought to reconcile with many countries in the region, including the UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Israel.
The outgoing government was keen to renew ties. However, it did so much reconciling that it’s not clear if it followed the maxim “trust, but verify.”
Was Ankara using Israel merely to try to get influence in Washington, doing outreach to pro-Israel voices in the US so as to get favors on the Hill? What has Ankara done for Israel?
Turkey did detain Israeli tourists on trumped-up charges, something that Ankara often does with countries, threatening them and pretending to climb down so as to get back to “zero” and make it seem Turkey did something positive. In addition, Turkey has said it has prevented attacks on Israelis. But one might ask why Iranians or others threatening Israelis can operate in Turkey in the first place?
One thing is clear: When Netanyahu was in charge, his motto was “strength” and he never allowed Turkey to threaten Israel without responding in kind. Netanyahu was a keen supporter of the Kurds and was always willing to stand up to slander from Ankara. This lead to very bad relations, but those bad relations were not the fault of Jerusalem. Now there are new ties, but it is not clear if Ankara will be able to change its old habits of bashing Israel now that the Right is apparently coming back to power in Jerusalem.
Will Ankara use upcoming elections to turn on Israel and will Netanyahu respond, or will caution on both sides prevail? These are key questions.
At the same time, Turkey likely watched Israel’s decision to enter a maritime deal with Lebanon and wonders what that portends.
Turkey has been working with Libya on maritime and defense deals that would lead to a new crisis between Ankara and Athens. Ankara has been threatening Greece over the last year and this has led to concerns about possible conflict. Although that seems far from possible, it’s plausible Ankara could create a crisis. Israel has close ties with Greece and Cyprus and while Israel does not want to be in the middle of a conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean, Netanyahu was keen on Greece-Israel ties. This means that maritime borders matter.
Lebanon and Israel: Maritime border and gas deal
Because maritime borders matter, the recent deal between Israel and Lebanon also saddles any incoming Israeli government with complex problems. The Lapid government rushed into a US-backed deal with Lebanon, amid threats by Hezbollah and demands from Hezbollah that Israel not exploit energy resources in the Karish field. While Israel has rights to do what it wants in Karish, Lebanon has extended its claims, setting up potential tensions. Yet, behind Lebanon’s claims were Iran and Hezbollah trying to lay claim to waters off the coast.
Israel signed a deal with Lebanon that some think will lead to peace and prosperity on both sides, but there is no guarantee Hezbollah will not feel its “victory” in the deal, which is what it tells itself it accomplished, will not lead to provocations. Hezbollah could use the cover of foreign companies exploring in the Kana field, on the Lebanese side of the line, to threaten Israel or provoke tensions. If Israel responds then Israel could be portrayed as breaking the agreement. In this setup, Hezbollah can do whatever it wants because it is an illegal armed terrorist mafia militia, and Lebanon can eschew any responsibility, pretending that Hezbollah just does what it wants.
The incoming government will need to examine the deal with Lebanon. Netanyahu was critical of the deal, but that could have been just election-eve criticism. Nevertheless, signing a deal as important as the Lebanon deal on the eve of the elections appears problematic. The next government will need to abide by this deal.
As we have seen with the Iran deal, countries and terror proxies linked to Iran like to force “deals” on democracies by threatening war if the democracies don’t accept the terms. Their gamble is that countries prefer deals to war. Netanyahu’s policy has generally been to try to avoid war but also keep up deterrence or at least keep up some kind of managing of these conflicts, as he did in Syria for a decade. This means that while Netanyahu is very familiar with the issues in the northern maritime border, and the Hezbollah-Iran axis, a new maritime deal adds weight to Israel’s freedom of action in the north.
Together, the Turkey ties and the Lebanese mezze of problems are tied to wider challenges in the region. Netanyahu, if and when he forms a government, will need to deal with two potentially interlinked crises both of which Iran, via Hezbollah, and Turkey or Hamas could cook up at any time.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on November 03-04/2022
Pope arrives on first trip to Bahrain, with rights in spotlight
Agence France Presse/November 03/2022
Pope Francis, leader of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics, on Thursday began a trip to Bahrain aimed at fostering dialogue between Christians and Muslims, but marked by criticism of the Gulf state's record on human rights.
The first papal visit to the island nation is this pontiff's second voyage as pope to the Arabian peninsula, after a 2019 trip to the United Arab Emirates also aimed at inter-faith outreach. The pope, 85, who is using a wheelchair due to knee problems, used an electronic platform to board the plane and broke with his usual practice of greeting journalists on arrival. Uniformed guards on horseback and Vatican and Bahrain flags lined the route of his short journey to the lavish Sakhir Royal Palace, where he was greeted by a crowd of cheering children. During his trip, which lasts until Sunday, he will meet Bahrain's king, hold an open-air mass and lead a prayer for peace at a vast modern cathedral opened last year.
In the days before his visit, international rights groups urged him to speak out against alleged abuses against Shiite Muslims, activists and opposition figures in the Sunni-led monarchy. Francis is set to conduct a "courtesy visit" with King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa following a welcoming ceremony, and then give a speech to authorities, diplomats and members of civil society. On Friday, Francis will address the "Bahrain Dialogue Forum: East and West for Human Coexistence", organized by the UAE-based Muslim Council of Elders.
'Banner of dialogue' -
Afterwards, he will hold a private meeting with Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, grand imam of the prestigious Cairo-based Al-Azhar, Egypt's highest Sunni institution. The two religious leaders signed a joint document pledging interfaith coexistence during Francis' UAE trip in 2019. The Argentine pope has made outreach to Muslim communities a priority during his papacy, visiting major Muslim countries such as Egypt, Turkey and Iraq, and most recently in September, Kazakhstan. On Tuesday, Francis asked the faithful assembled on Saint Peter's Square to pray for his upcoming trip, calling it "a journey under the banner of dialogue." Ahead of the voyage, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told journalists he would not guess whether Francis would broach the topic of human rights. But the pope's view "concerning religious freedom and liberty is clear and known," Bruni said. Francis' visit to Bahrain follows recent scrutiny of the rights record of neighbor Qatar -- particularly treatment of low-income migrant workers, women and the LBGTQ community -- ahead of the football World Cup later this month, which it is hosting. On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch and eight other rights groups called on Francis to publicly press Bahrain to "halt all executions, abolish the death penalty, and seriously investigate torture allegations and violations of the right to a fair trial". They also called on Francis to demand better protections of migrant workers and the release of opposition figures, journalists and others still imprisoned since a crackdown that followed pro-democracy protests in 2011. A government spokesman rejected the groups' allegations, stating Tuesday that Bahrain "does not tolerate discrimination", and that no one is prosecuted for their religious or political beliefs.
'Prayer for peace' -
Friday's "prayer for peace" will be held at the cavernous Our Lady of Arabia Cathedral in Awali, which seats more than 2,000 people and opened in December. It was built to serve Bahrain's approximately 80,000 Catholics, mainly workers from southern Asia, including India and the Philippines. On Saturday, Francis will lead mass at Bahrain's national stadium before a crowd of nearly 30,000 people, where workers on Wednesday were adding finishing touches, including a giant gold cross above Francis' chair. About 2,000 spots will be saved for Catholics arriving from Saudi Arabia, Bishop Paul Hinder, the apostolic administrator for the vicariate of Northern Arabia, told Vatican News. Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia, the cradle of Islam, is an absolute monarchy repeatedly accused of abuses by rights groups. Riyadh does not recognize freedom of religion and bans all non-Muslim places of worship. Francis will preside over a prayer meeting with Catholic clergy and others on Sunday before returning to Rome.

Pope Francis urges 'safe conditions' for workers in Gulf visit
Agence France Presse/November 03/2022
Pope Francis Thursday demanded "safe and dignified" conditions for workers after arriving in Bahrain, where rights for migrant laborers have been in the spotlight ahead of the World Cup in Qatar. "Let us guarantee that working conditions everywhere are safe and dignified," the pontiff said, addressing dignitaries including his host, Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa.

Israel counts last votes as Netanyahu's majority firms up
Associated Press/November 03/2022
Israeli election officials were tallying the final votes from national elections on Thursday, with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looking likely to reclaim the premiership with a comfortable majority backed by far-right allies. A last-minute surprise is still possible, if a small dovish group is able to sneak past the electoral threshold needed to enter parliament and hold back the size of Netanyahu's majority. But the likelihood was small, and members of Netanyahu's expected coalition were already jockeying for portfolios in what will be Israel's most right-wing government. Israel held its fifth election in four years on Tuesday, a protracted political crisis that saw voters divided over Netanyahu's fitness to serve while on trial for corruption. Some 90% of ballots were counted by Thursday morning and final results could come later in the day. As it stands, Netanyahu and his ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox allies are expected to secure 65 seats in Israel's 120-seat parliament, or Knesset. His opponents, led by caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid, were expected to win 50 seats. Netanyahu's expected win and his likely comfortable majority puts an end to Israel's political instability, for now. But it leaves Israelis split over their leadership and over the values that define their state: Jewish or democratic. Netanyahu's top partner in the government is expected to be the far-right Religious Zionism party, whose main candidate, Itamar Ben-Gvir is a disciple of a racist rabbi, says he wants to end Palestinian autonomy in parts of the West Bank and until recently hung a photo in his home of Baruch Goldstein, an American-Israeli who killed 29 Palestinians in a West Bank shooting attack in 1993. Ben-Gvir, who promises to deport Arab legislators, says he wants to be named head of the ministry that is in charge of the police.
Religious Zionism has promised to enact changes to Israeli law that could make Netanyahu's legal woes disappear and, along with other nationalist allies, they want to weaken the independence of the judiciary and concentrate more power in the hands of lawmakers. The party's leader, Bezalel Smotrich, a West Bank settler who has made anti-Arab remarks, has his sights set on the Defense Ministry, what would make him the overseer of the military and Israel's West Bank military occupation. After the results are formally announced, Israel's ceremonial president taps one candidate, usually from the largest party, to form a government. They then have four weeks to do so. Netanyahu is likely to wrap up talks within that time, but Religious Zionism is expected to drive a hard bargain for its support. The polarizing Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving leader, was ousted in 2021 after 12 consecutive years in power by an ideologically-diverse coalition that included for the first time in Israel's history a small Arab party. The coalition collapsed in the spring over infighting. Netanyahu is charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in a series of scandals involving wealthy associates and media moguls. He denies wrongdoing, seeing the trial as a witch hunt against him orchestrated by a hostile media and a biased judicial system.

Israeli far-rightist vows to impose order under new Netanyahu government
JERUSALEM (Reuters) /November 03/2022
A near-final tally of votes on Thursday showed former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on track to re-election with a clear parliamentary majority, boosted by ultranationalists who want tougher crackdowns on Palestinians.
In the latest violence, Israeli forces killed three Palestinians, including an Islamic Jihad militant in the occupied West Bank and a Jerusalem man who police said had stabbed an officer. Tuesday's ballot saw out the centrist incumbent, Yair Lapid, and his rare alliance of conservatives, liberals and Arab politicians which, over 18 months in power, had made diplomatic inroads with Turkey and Lebanon and kept the economy humming. But with the conflict with the Palestinians surging anew and touching off Jewish-Arab tensions within Israel, Netanyahu's rightist Likud and kindred parties took 65 of the Knesset's 120 seats, according to a vote count due to conclude on Thursday. "The time has come to impose order here. The time has come for there to be a landlord," tweeted Itamar Ben-Gvir of the far-right Religious Zionism party, Likud's likely senior partner. He was responding to the stabbing reported by Jerusalem police. In the West Bank, troops killed an Islamic Jihad militant and a 45-year-old man in a separate incident, medics said. Queried on the latter death, the army said it opened fire when Palestinians attacked them with rocks and petrol bombs. A West Bank settler and former member of Kach, a Jewish militant group on Israeli and U.S. terrorist watchlists, Ben-Gvir wants to become police minister.Israeli media, citing political sources, said the new government may be clinched by mid-month. Previous coalitions in recent years have had narrower parliamentary majorities that made them vulnerable to no-confidence motions. With Netanyahu still not officially confirmed as prime minister, it was still unclear what position Ben-Gvir might hold in a future government. Since the election, both men have pledged to serve all citizens. But Ben-Gvir's ascendancy has stirred alarm among the 21% Arab minority and centre-left Jews - and especially among Palestinians whose U.S.-sponsored statehood talks with Israel broke down in 2014. While Washington has publicly reserved judgement pending the new Israeli coalition's formation, a State Department spokesman on Wednesday emphasised the countries' "shared values"."We hope that all Israeli government officials will continue to share the values of an open, democratic society, including tolerance and respect for all in civil society, particularly for minority groups," the spokesperson said.

UK urges all Israeli parties to respect minorities
Agence France Presse/November 03/2022
Britain on Thursday urged all politicians in Israel to respect minorities as Benjamin Netanyahu appeared set to return to power with the help of the far right. "We would call on all Israeli parties to refrain from inflammatory language and demonstrate tolerance and respect for minority groups," a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told reporters. Sunak's new government also shot down a suggestion by previous prime minister Liz Truss that the UK embassy in Israel could be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. "There are no plans to move the British embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv," the spokeswoman said, after Truss announced a review during her short-lived tenure. "We looked at this issue under the previous administration and I can confirm there are no plans to move it."The review, which could have seen Britain emulate former U.S. president Donald Trump in relocating its embassy, sparked alarm from the Palestinian government and Christian leaders in Jerusalem. The 2018 move by Trump broke with decades of international consensus on the status quo in Jerusalem, which remains claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians as their capital.

Four Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in separate incidents
Agence France Presse /November 03/2022
Four Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces Thursday, including an alleged attacker and Islamist fighter, medics and security officials said, as violence flared across Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. Two Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces in Jenin -- 14-year-old Mohammed Samer Khalouf and 28-year-old Farouq Salameh -- while four others suffered gunshot wounds, the Palestinian health ministry said. Israel's army described Salameh as "an operative belonging to the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization", and said he was the target of the afternoon raid. An army statement blamed Salameh for several recent shooting attacks targeting Israeli forces and said soldiers raided a Jenin building following intelligence that he was inside. There was a gun fight, and Salameh fled before being tracked down by soldiers, the army said, adding that he "pulled out a gun" before being "neutralised". Hours earlier, a Palestinian who allegedly stabbed an Israeli officer was shot dead in Jerusalem's Old City. He "stabbed one of the officers in the upper body" before he was shot dead by two other officers, a police statement said. The latest killings came two days after an Israeli general election and amid what the UN says is the deadliest period in years in the West Bank, with near daily army raids and an increase in clashes and attacks on Israeli forces.
'Firebomb' -
The incident in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem happened beside a checkpoint for Muslim worshippers visiting the nearby Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam's third holiest site, which is known by Jews as the Temple Mount. Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem said they were treating a man suffering a stab wound to the torso in moderate condition, and another man who was lightly wounded by a gunshot to the leg, likely from shots fired by police. Another police officer was lightly wounded after being hit by fragments during the incident, Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital said. Israeli forces sealed off surrounding streets while a forensics team photographed the scene, beside a stall loaded with bread. Mourners meanwhile gathered in the West Bank village of Beit Duqqu for the funeral of a 42-year-old man killed in clashes with Israeli forces. Israeli border police said officers shot dead a suspect "with a firebomb in his hand" in Beit Duqqu, northwest of Jerusalem. At least 34 Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed across east Jerusalem and the West Bank since the start of October, according to an AFP tally. The surge in violence prompted a weeks-long lockdown of the West Bank city of Nablus, which the Israeli military said was lifted on Thursday. The closure imposed on October 11 had restricted travel in and out of the city for around 200,000 Palestinians, disrupting daily life, the local economy and access to medical care and education.

As Israel's far right parties celebrate, Palestinians shrug
Associated Press/November 03/2022
The apparent comeback of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the dramatic rise of his far-right and ultra-Orthodox allies in Israel's general election this week have prompted little more than shrugs from many Palestinians. "It's all the same to me," Said Issawiy, a vendor hawking nectarines in the main al-Manara Square of Ramallah, said of Netanyahu replacing centrist Yair Lapid and poised to head the most right-wing government in Israel's history. Over the past month, Issawiy had struggled to get to work in Ramallah from his home in the city of Nablus after the Israeli army blocked several roads in response to a wave of violence in the northern West Bank. "I'm just trying to eat and work and bring something back to my kids," he said. Some view the likely victory for Netanyahu and his openly anti-Palestinian allies, including ultranationalist lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir who wants to end Palestinian autonomy in parts of the occupied West Bank, as a new blow to the Palestinian national project. The sharp rightward shift of Israel's political establishment pushes long-dormant peace negotiations even further out of reach and deepens the challenges facing 87-year-old President Mahmoud Abbas, whose autocratic Palestinian Authority already seemed to many Palestinians as little more than an arm of the Israeli security forces.
"If you want to use the metaphor of a 'nail in the coffin of the Palestinian Authority,' that was done earlier," said Ghassan Khatib, a former Palestinian peace negotiator and Cabinet minister. "This election is another step in that same direction." During his 12 years in power, before being voted out in 2021, Netanyahu showed scant interest in engaging with the Palestinians. Under his leadership, Israel vastly expanded its population of West Bank settlers — now some 500,000 — and retroactively legalized settler outposts built on private Palestinian land. The measures have entrenched Israel's occupation, now in its 56th year since Israel captured the territory during the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians see successive Israeli governments as seeking to solidify a bleak status quo in the West Bank: Palestinian enclaves divided by growing Israeli settlements and surrounded by Israeli forces. "We had no illusion that this next government would be a partner for peace," said Ahmad Majdalani, a minister in the Palestinian Authority. "It's the opposite, we see a campaign of incitement that began more than 15 years ago as Israel drifted toward extremism." The Gaza Strip's militant Hamas rulers said the election outcome would "not change the nature of the conflict."But for the first time, surging support for Israel's far right has made the Jewish supremacist party of Ben-Gvir the third-largest in the Israeli parliament.
Ben-Gvir and his allies hope to grant immunity to Israeli soldiers who shoot at Palestinians, deport rival lawmakers and impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of attacks on Jews. Ben-Gvir is the disciple of a racist rabbi, Meir Kahane, who was banned from parliament and whose Kach party was branded a terrorist group by the United States before he was assassinated in New York in 1990.
On the campaign trail, Ben-Gvir grabbed headlines for his anti-Palestinian speeches and stunts — recently brandishing a shotgun and encouraging police to open fire on Palestinian stone-throwers in a tense Jerusalem neighborhood.
Some Palestinians have found reason for optimism. After Tuesday's elections, they say, Israel will no longer present to the world the telegenic face of Lapid. A win for extremism in Israel, some say, could bolster the moral case for efforts to isolate Israel, vindicating activism outside the moribund peace process.
"It will lead to some international pressure," said Mahmoud Nawajaa, an activist with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS, which calls for an economic boycott of Israel as happened to apartheid-era South Africa in the 1980s.
"Netanyahu is more honest and clear about his intentions to expand settlements. The others didn't say it, even if it was happening," Nawajaa added.
Lapid and his predecessor, Naftali Bennett, a former settler leader who rebranded himself as a national unifier, had presided over a wobbly coalition of right-wing, centrist and dovish left-wing parties, including the first Arab party to ever join a government. Foreign leaders who shunned the divisive Netanyahu embraced what appeared to be a less ideological government. Bennett became the first Israeli leader to visit the United Arab Emirates after the countries normalized ties — an honor repeatedly denied to Netanyahu. President Joe Biden, who had a rocky relationship with Netanyahu, basked in Lapid's warm welcome during his visit to Israel last summer.
But even as Lapid voiced support for the two-state solution during his address to the U.N. General Assembly in September, Palestinians saw no sign he could turn words into action. They watched Israel approve thousands of new settler homes on lands they want for a future state.
Israeli military raids in the West Bank have also surged after a series of Palestinian attacks in the spring killed 19 people in Israel. More than 130 Palestinians have been killed, making 2022 the deadliest since the U.N. started tracking fatalities in 2005. The Israeli army says most of the Palestinians killed have been militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed. "In terms of violence, the Lapid government has outdone itself," said Nour Odeh, a Palestinian political analyst and former PA spokeswoman. "As far as new settlements and de facto annexation, Lapid is Netanyahu." Many young Palestinians have given up on the two-state solution and grown disillusioned with the aging Palestinian leadership, which they see as a vehicle for corruption and collaboration with Israel. Hamas and Fatah, the Palestinian party that controls the West Bank, have remained bitterly divided for 15 years. A mere 37% of Palestinians support the two-state solution, according to the most recent report from Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki. In Israel the figures are roughly the same — 32% of Jewish Israelis support the idea, according to the Israel Democracy Institute. "There is no horizon for a political track with the Israelis," Odeh said. "We need to look inward ... to re-legitimize our institutions through elections, and stand together on a united political platform." But on the crowded, chaotic streets of Ramallah on Wednesday, there was only misery and anger over the daily humiliations of the occupation. "I hate this place," said Lynn Anwar Hafi, a 19-year-old majoring in literature at a local university. "It's like the occupation lives inside me. I can't think what I want to. I can't go where I want to. I won't be free until I leave."

Hamas Operations Continue Unhindered in Turkey
FDD/November 03/2022
Latest Developments
Israel indicted three of its citizens in late October for providing intelligence to Hamas operatives in Turkey. Authorities have only identified the suspects by their initials but said they identified with Hamas ideology and planned to carry out a cyber-attack against the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The main suspect worked as a software engineer for an Israeli communications firm and met Hamas operatives in Turkey multiple times to transfer sensitive information about Israeli communications infrastructure.
Expert Analysis
“Despite warming relations with Israel, Ankara continues to turn a blind eye to Hamas’ activity in the country. The organization is using Turkey as a hub to circumvent international sanctions and direct military operations against Israel. If Turkey is serious about improved relations with Israel, it must demonstrate it is making a genuine effort to curb Hamas activity within its borders.” – Joe Truzman, Research Analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal
Connections to Turkey
The Hamas operatives who directed the lead suspect served under the command of Saleh al-Arouri, a U.S.-designated terrorist with a $5 million bounty on his head. Al-Arouri was based in Istanbul for several years, from where he directed Hamas’ operations in the West Bank. In a 2014 video — filmed in Turkey — al-Arouri claimed that Hamas was responsible for the abduction and murder of three Jewish youths in the West Bank.
Hamas’ Cyber Capabilities
Hamas has conducted cyber operations before, but the terror organization formally announced the establishment of its cyber unit shortly after last month’s indictments. In 2018, the IDF announced that Hamas operatives were using fake identities to target Israeli soldiers. A British news outlet reported in 2020 that Hamas was carrying out cyberattacks from a base in Istanbul; Western intelligence confirmed the report.
A Source of Israel-Turkey Friction
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has provided a haven for Hamas since it established a headquarters in Istanbul in 2014. After Israel-Turkey ties began warming last year, there have been reports that Turkey would no longer host Hamas militants. However, it is unclear if Erdogan has curtailed the Hamas presence. Last week, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with Erdogan in Ankara and urged Turkey’s president to banish Hamas. According to Israeli officials, Israel will keep the pressure on Ankara to end its policy of allowing Hamas to “support, plan, and fundraise” on Turkish soil for terror attacks against Israelis.
The U.S.-Designated Hamas Entities and Individuals in Turkey
Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated several entities and individuals in Turkey that have been involved in generating funds for Hamas. Financial intermediaries such as Hisham Qafisheh founded several companies in Turkey with the aim of raising funds for Hamas. Qafisheh and other financial facilitators named by Treasury took advantage of their senior positions in several Turkish-based companies and other businesses abroad to launder funds for Hamas.

Saudi ally UAE undertook a secret mission to Riyadh that backed Biden's view on OPEC oil production, report says
Brian Evans/Business Insider/November 03/2022
The UAE tried to dissuade Saudi Arabia from supporting an OPEC oil production cut, according to the Wall Street Journal.
National security advisor Sheikh Tahnoun secretly met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in September.
The UAE said an output cut wasn't economically necessary, echoing the White House's view.
The United Arab Emirates sent its national security advisor on a secret mission to Saudi Arabia in September to convince OPEC's de facto leader not to cut oil production quotas, sources told the Wall Street Journal. The UAE's Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in Riyadh and warned a cut would risk political backlash and echoed the White House's view that it was economically unnecessary, according to the report. A UAE spokesperson told the WSJ that the information concerning bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the meeting in question, and the production cut were inaccurate but didn't elaborate.The UAE and Saudi Arabia are long-time allies that typically align on issues pertaining to energy and security. Last month, the UAE went along with the OPEC+ decision to slash production quotas by 2 million barrels a day, while signaling to the West that it could supply the market with more crude from Emirati production. Still, the report on the UAE's secret mission could indicate a growing split among key players in the oil cartel. Last month, a top spokesman for the US National Security Council that Saudi Arabia coerced other OPEC members that opposed the output-quota cuts to back its plan. Countries that were uncomfortable with lowering production included the UAE, Iraq and Bahrain, the Financial Times reported. Meanwhile, the US-Saudi alliance has deteriorated sharply. After the OPEC+ meeting, the White House accused the oil group of aligning with Russia, and President Joe Biden warned of consequences in relations between Washington and Riyadh.

U.S. imposes sanctions on oil smuggling network backing Iran's Quds Force, Hezbollah
WASHINGTON (Reuters)/November 03, 2022
-The United States on Thursday issued sanctions against an international oil smuggling network it said supports Hezbollah and Iran's Quds Force, targeting dozens of people, companies and tankers as Washington sought to mount pressure on Tehran.
The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement said it designated members of the network that facilitated oil trades and generated revenue for Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah and the Quds Force, an arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards that operates abroad, both of which are under U.S. sanctions.
The latest U.S. move against Iranian oil smuggling comes as efforts to revive Iran's 2015 nuclear deal have stalled and ties between the Islamic Republic and the West are increasingly strained as Iranians keep up anti-government protests.
The Treasury said the network designated on Thursday included key individuals, front companies and vessels it accused of being involved in blending oil to conceal the Iranian origins of the shipments and exporting it around the world in support of the Quds Force and Hezbollah.
"Market participants should be vigilant of Hizballah and the IRGC-QF’s attempts to generate revenue from oil smuggling to enable their terrorist activities around the world," said Brian Nelson, the Treasury's Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, in the statement.
Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The move targeted a Gulf-based network that the Treasury said as of mid-2022 were blending and exporting Iranian oil. The network used storage units in the Port of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and blended products of Indian origin with Iranian oil to obfuscate the origin, Washington said. The companies modified or created counterfeit certificates of origin and quality for the oil, which was then transferred for sale abroad, Treasury said. Some oil sales were planned to Asia buyers as of late 2021, and Ava Petroleum - one of the entities designated - coordinated an oil shipment to China, according to Treasury. Washington targeted Viktor Artemov, Edman Nafrieh, Rouzbeh Zahedi and Mohamed El Zein, as well as companies under their control, such as Ava Petroleum, that Treasury said were used to conduct the activities. Companies in Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Turkey, Iran and the Marshall Islands were among those designated, according to Treasury's website. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a separate statement said the network had facilitated the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of oil for Hezbollah and the Quds Force. The sanctions freeze the U.S. assets of those designated and generally bar Americans from dealing with them. Those that engage in certain transactions with them also risk being hit with sanctions. Washington maintains sweeping sanctions on Iran and has looked for ways to increase pressure as efforts to resurrect the 2015 nuclear deal have stalled. U.S. President Joe Biden had sought to negotiate the return of Iran to the nuclear deal after former President Donald Trump pulled out of the agreement in 2018.
The 2015 agreement limited Iran's uranium enrichment activity to make it harder for Tehran to develop nuclear arms in return for lifting international sanctions.

Cleric killed in restive Iranian city, protests rage on
DUBAI (Reuters) /November 03/2022
A cleric at a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in the restive, mostly Sunni Muslim Iranian city of Zahedan has been shot dead, the official news agency IRNA said, threatening a spike in sectarian tensions complicating government efforts to contain widespread unrest.
IRNA named the dead cleric as Sajjad Shahraki.
"A special task force has been formed for the purpose of identifying and arresting the perpetrators," said Ahmad Taheri, police commander of Sistan-Baluchistan province.
Zahedan was the scene of one of the deadliest days during a wave of popular protests that have swept the Islamic Republic since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police on Sept. 16.
Amnesty International said security forces killed at least 66 people in a crackdown on protesters in Zahedan on Sept. 30.
Authorities in the city in Iran's far southeast sacked its police commander and the chief of a police station afterwards.
The Zahedan deaths were widely criticised, including by a top Sunni cleric who said senior officials in the Shi'ite establishment including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were responsible "before God".
The nationwide demonstrations, which resound with chants calling for the death of Khamenei, have posed one of the boldest challenges to the state since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran blames its foreign foes and their agents for the protests and accuses them of trying to destabilise the country.
Zahedan, close to Iran's southeastern border with Pakistan and Afghanistan, is home to a Baluch minority estimated to number up to 2 million people who have faced discrimination and repression for decades, according to human rights groups.
The Sistan-Baluchistan region around Zahedan is one of the country's poorest and has been a hotbed of tension where Iranian security forces have been attacked by Baluch militants. Forty prominent Iranian human rights lawyers publicly criticised Iran's Shi'ite theocracy, saying crackdowns that have crushed dissent for decades will no longer work and protesters seeking a new political order will prevail. "The government is still drowning in illusions and believes it can repress, arrest and kill to silence," the lawyers, some inside the country and some outside, said in a statement sent to Reuters. "But the flood of people will ultimately remove a government because the divine will side with the people. The voice of the people is the voice of God." Those inside Iran risk arrest with such comments. But the lawyers' statement is the latest example of how an increasing number of Iranians are no longer paralysed by the fear of the state that kept them in line for decades. Among the lawyers signing the statement is Saeid Dehghan, who has represented dual nationals jailed in Iran on security-related charges. Another is Giti Pourfazel, who was among activists jailed for signing an open letter in 2019 urging Khamenei to resign. She was released in 2021.
'EVERY TACTIC'
In past years major protests, which were violently quelled, focused on election results and economic woes while the current unrest has one main demand - the fall of the Islamic Republic. Iran has been widening its crackdown, deploying security forces at protests and making arrests of a wide range of Iranians from lawyers to doctors to rappers. Videos shared on social media show that a crowd of hundreds gathered on Thursday in a central avenue of the city of Karaj to pay respects to Hadis Najafi, a young woman who was shot dead by security forces, according to her sister and social media. Protesters in Karaj, which lies just west of the capital Tehran, were seen in an online video burning and ripping up a brown "abah", the long robe that Shi'ite clerics wear. A member of the hardline Basij militia was killed in Karaj and five police officers were wounded during a riot, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. Human Rights Watch said Iranian authorities had escalated their assault against widespread dissent and protests by filing dubious national security charges against detained activists and staging grossly unfair trials. “Iran’s vicious security apparatus is using every tactic in its book, including lethal force against protesters, arresting and slandering human rights defenders and journalists, and sham trials to crush widespread dissent,” said Tara Sepehri Far, senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Yet every new atrocity only reinforces why Iranians are demanding fundamental changes to a corrupt autocracy.” Rights group Hengaw reported on Thursday that a 27-year-old rapper from Kermanshah was charged as being an "enemy of God", a capital offence under Iran's Islamic law. According to the rights group, Saman Yasin had sung protest songs in Kurdish and has been tortured during his first three weeks in detention. Iran has denied allegations by human rights groups that it abuses prisoners.

Clashes erupt near Iran's capital as ongoing protests flare
The Associated Press/November 3, 2022
 Iranian protesters clashed with police in a town near the capital on Thursday, reportedly killing or wounding members of the security forces, who at one point dropped stun grenades on the demonstrators from helicopters.
It was the latest in a wave of demonstrations that have convulsed Iran for more than six weeks and mark one of the biggest challenges to the country's clerical rulers since they seized power in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The protesters had gathered in Karaj, just outside Tehran, to mark the 40th day since the shooting death of Hadis Najafi, 22, one of several young women to have been killed during the protests. The demonstrations were ignited by the death of another woman held by the country's morality police.
The 40th day after someone's death has great symbolism in Shiite Islam and is marked by public mourning. Commemorating protester deaths has given momentum to the ongoing demonstrations, just as it did during the 1979 revolution that overthrew a Western-backed monarchy.
Videos circulated online showed thousands of protesters in Karaj and clashes with police. In one of them, a helicopter flies over the protesters and drops flash grenades in an attempt to disperse them before landing in the middle of a highway. Government supporters on social media said the helicopter was sent to aid wounded policemen. The state-run IRNA news agency quoted the head of emergency services in Karaj, Ahmad Mahdavi, as saying two people were killed and others wounded during the unrest. He did not specify whether the two were protesters or security forces, or provide further details.
IRNA circulated videos and photos on social media showing a police pickup truck that had crashed into a concrete barrier on a highway.
It was not immediately clear what caused the crash, but videos showed protesters hurling rocks at the vehicle and a man firing into it as at least three wounded individuals were inside. The photos showed what appeared to be two lifeless bodies.
The semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported that three policemen were seriously wounded in clashes with protesters. It was not immediately clear it it was referring to the same event. Tasnim also reported that protesters set fire to a police kiosk and van. The semiofficial Fars news agency said a member of Iran's paramilitary Basij force was stabbed to death in Karaj. Iranian authorities heavily restrict media coverage of the protests and have periodically shut down internet access across the country, making it difficult to confirm details of the unrest.
The demonstrations were ignited by the Sept. 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been detained by the morality police for allegedly violating Iran's strict dress code for women. Authorities say she died because of a health condition and was not mistreated, but her family has cast doubt on that account and the protesters accuse the police of beating her to death. The first big protests erupted at Amini's funeral in her hometown in the Kurdish region of Iran. The near-daily demonstrations continued, flaring up again 40 days after she was buried.
The protests were initially focused on Iran's enforcement of the Islamic headscarf, or hijab, with crowds of young women removing theirs during raucous street protests. The demonstrations rapidly grew into calls for the overthrow of the theocracy that has ruled Iran for more than four decades.
Security forces have sought to quash dissent, killing at least 300 people and arresting more than 14,000, according to the group Human Rights Activists in Iran, which has been tracking the violence since the protests began. It says at least 36 security forces have been killed.
Iran's judiciary has said more than a thousand people who had a central role in the protests would be brought to trial in Tehran over their “subversive actions,” including assaulting security guards and torching public property. Authorities have announced charges against hundreds of people in other Iranian provinces, some accused of “corruption on earth” and “war against God,” offenses that carry the death penalty.

Iran: Criticism Mounts over Brutal Crackdown... Khamenei Points to ‘Clear American Role’
London - Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 3 November, 2022
Iran’s spiritual leader, Ali Khamenei, played down the school students’ protests, saying that their movement was manipulated by “the owners of plans and agendas,” while demonstrations continued across Iranian universities.
Videos on social media showing Iranian security forces severely beating protesters have gone viral as anger grows at a widening crackdown with arrests of prominent figures from rappers to economists and lawyers aimed at ending seven weeks of unrest.
Anti-regime rallies have swept the country since the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police seven weeks ago, after she was arrested for an alleged breach of the country’s strict dress code for women.
The protests constitute one of the most difficult challenges facing Iran’s clerical leaders in decades. The country’s authorities have tried to accuse Iran’s enemies abroad and their agents of fueling the protest movement, a narrative that few Iranians believe.
Khamenei accused the United States, Israel, some “malignant European powers” and some groups of waging a "combined war". He said that they “used all their energies to harm the Iranian people.”
His comments came after the Intelligence Ministry and the IRGC issued a joint statement on Friday, accusing the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Israeli Mossad of being behind the protests. The statement accused two female journalists, who were arrested by the authorities, of being “agents” to these bodies. Khamenei expressed his satisfaction with the security services’ reports, saying that they have proven that the “enemy planned riots in Tehran and major and small cities.”
Reuters quoted Khamenei as saying on Wednesday that US officials who support protests are “shameless”.
“Those who think the US is an untouchable power are wrong,” Khamenei said. “It is completely vulnerable as seen with current events.”He continued: “America’s fingerprints can be seen in most of the anti-Iranian events”, stressing that the Iranian people had managed to “thwart enemy plots.”
“We will not forget some incidents, and we will fulfill our promise regarding (...) Soleimani at the appropriate time,” he warned, referring to the US forces’ killing of IRGC General Qassem Soleimani in Iraq in January 2020.
Khamanei’s comments came as Iran prepares to celebrate Student’s Day next Saturday, the anniversary of the storming of the US Embassy by students supporting the first Iranian leader (Khomeini) in 1979, and taking 53 diplomats hostage for 444 days. The state-run Mehr news agency reported that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi would address the annual demonstration, which mobilizes government agencies every year.
Defying a harsh warning by the chief of the widely feared Revolutionary Guards, Iranians have risked their lives and arrest by remaining in the street despite a bloody crackdown.
Student strikes were renewed across the country. Students of Balochistan University resisted the deployment of security forces, chanting slogans and warning against suppressing their movement, according to a video recording published by the account of the Coordinating Committee of Iranian University Students’ Unions. In the province of Kurdistan, students crowded into Mariwan University. In Shiraz, in the south of the country, students organized a protest rally to demand the release of detainees. The Khawaja Naseer Industrial University in Tehran and Rasht University issued separate statements, condemning the arrest of students, and calling on the authorities to respect the right to protest. Earlier this week, student unions have published similar statements at many universities. Crackdown on protests A video that went viral on social media showed a dozen riot police beating a man at night on a street in southern Tehran. One of the officers on a motorbike ran him over then another shot him at close range. “This shocking video sent from Tehran today is another horrific reminder that the cruelty of Iran’s security forces knows no bounds,” Amnesty International said on Twitter about the video. “Amid a crisis of impunity, they’re given free rein to brutally beat & shoot protesters. @UN_HRC must urgently investigate these crimes.”Iran’s police said in a communique on Tuesday that a special order was issued to examine the details of a video showing police officers beating a citizen, without giving any detail on the video in question. “The police does not approve of harsh and unconventional treatment, the offending police officers will certainly be dealt with according to the law,” the statement read, according to Tasnim news agency. The activist HRANA news agency said around 300 people had been killed in the unrest, including 46 minors. Iran said at least 36 members of the security forces were also killed. Some 14,160 people have been arrested, including about 300 students, in protests in 133 cities and towns, and 129 universities, it said. On Monday night, security forces went to the house of prominent economist Davoud Souri and arrested him. The officers took his laptop and mobile phone with them, and after his arrest, they informed his family that he was at Evin prison, according to a social media post that Reuters could not verify. Iranian media published on Wednesday a video of the arrest of famous Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, showing him blindfolded and saying he did not mean what he had said in previous comments critical of the authorities. He was detained following his release of several rap clips in support of the protests.

Republican Senator Criticizes Biden’s Policy towards Tehran
Washington - Rana Abtar/Asharq Al-Awsat/Thursday, 3 November, 2022
Republican Senator Joni Ernst criticized the administration of US President Joe Biden and Democrats in their handling of the Iranian file, after the White House confirmed the exchange of information with Saudi Arabia about Iranian threats. In a tweet, Ernst said that the United States currently has approximately 3,000 service members stationed in Saudi Arabia. “While Iran prepares for an attack on our partners, leading Dems are advocating for removing key air and missile defense units, risking the lives of US citizens and our troops alike,” she said. Ernst described Saudi Arabia as a long-term security partner, saying: “Saudi Arabia is a longstanding Gulf security partner and that has not changed. The Biden admin kneecapped US energy production and has blamed OPEC+ for high gas prices. The American people don’t buy it.”The Republican senator called on the White House to end negotiations with Iran in efforts to revive the nuclear agreement, describing the country as the leading sponsor of terrorism in the world. “Moving forward we must return to US energy independence, and terminate the renegotiation of the JCPOA with the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism,” she tweeted. Ernst concluded by saying: “America must defend our land and our allies in the Gulf, and punish our adversaries like Iran.”The senator’s comments came in reaction to a report by the Wall Street Journal, which quoted US and Saudi officials as saying that Saudi Arabia had shared intelligence with the United States warning of imminent attacks by Iran on targets in the Kingdom. The newspaper said that the United States, Saudi Arabia and other neighboring countries raised the state of alert of their military forces, after information that Iran was planning to launch attacks on both Saudi Arabia and Erbil in Iraq, in an attempt by the Iranian regime to distract attention from the demonstrations that have swept the country. The newspaper quoted the National Security Council in the White House as saying that the US was concerned about the warnings, and was ready to respond if Iran carried out any aggression. A spokesman for the council said: “We are concerned about the threats and remain in constant contact with the Saudis through military and intelligence channels. We will not hesitate to act in defense of our interests and the interests of our partners in the region.”

Iran plans to supply Russia with arms ‘unacceptable’: NATO chief
AFP/November 03, 2022
ISTANBUL: Iran’s plans to supply Russia with weapons including drones and ballistic missiles in its war against Ukraine are “unacceptable,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday. Kyiv and its Western allies accuse Iran of supplying drones to Russia. “We see Iran offering drones and considering ballistic missile deliveries to Russia,” Stoltenberg told a news conference in Istanbul. “This is unacceptable. No country should provide support to Moscow in this illegal war.”Kyiv has said around 400 Iranian drones have already been used against the civilian population of Ukraine, and Moscow has ordered around 2,000. Tehran has rejected the allegation. Stoltenberg added Russian President Vladimir Putin was failing in Ukraine, but “responding with more brutality.” “In recent weeks, we have seen dozens of drone and missile strikes across Ukraine. Including on critical infrastructure,” he added. Russia is “cruelly and deliberately depriving Ukrainian civilians of heating, water and electricity at the outset of winter,” Stoltenberg said.

Russians try to subdue Ukrainian towns by seizing mayors
Associated Press/November 03/2022
Not long after Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, soldiers broke down the office door of Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov. They put a bag over his head, bundled him into a car and drove him around the southern city for hours, threatening to kill him.
Fedorov, 34, is one of over 50 local leaders who have been held in Russian captivity since the war began on Feb. 24 in an attempt to subdue cities and towns coming under Moscow's control. Like many others, he said he was pressured to collaborate with the invaders.
"The bullying and threats did not stop for a minute. They tried to force me to continue leading the city under the Russian flag, but I refused," Fedorov told The Associated Press by phone last month in Kyiv. "They didn't beat me, but day and night, wild screams from the next cell would tell me what was waiting for me."As Russians seized parts of eastern and southern Ukraine, civilian administrators and others, including nuclear power plant workers, say they have been abducted, threatened or beaten to force their cooperation — something that legal and human rights experts say may constitute a war crime.
Ukrainian and Western historians say the tactic is used when invading forces are unable to subjugate the population. This year, as Russian forces sought to tighten their hold on Melitopol, hundreds of residents took to the streets to demand Fedorov's release. After six days in detention and an intervention from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he was exchanged for nine Russian prisoners of war and expelled from the occupied city. A pro-Kremlin figure was installed.
"The Russians cannot govern the captured cities. They have neither the personnel nor the experience," Fedorov said. They want to force public officials to work for them because they realize that someone has to "clean the streets and fix up the destroyed houses."
The Association of Ukrainian Cities (AUC), a group of local leaders from across Ukraine, said that of the more than 50 abducted officials, including 34 mayors, at least 10 remain captive. Russian officials haven't commented on the allegations. Moscow-backed authorities in eastern Ukraine even launched a criminal investigation into Fedorov on charges of involvement in terrorist activities.
"Kidnapping the heads of villages, towns and cities, especially in wartime, endangers all residents of a community, because all critical management, provision of basic amenities and important decisions on which the fate of thousands of residents depends are entrusted to the community's head," said Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, head of the AUC. In the southern city of Kherson, one of the first seized by Russia and a key target of an unfolding counteroffensive, Mayor Ihor Kolykhaiev tried to stand his ground. He said in April that he would refuse to cooperate with its new, Kremlin-backed overseer. Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-installed regional administration, repeatedly denounced Kolykhaiev as a "Nazi," echoing the false Kremlin narrative that its attack on Ukraine was an attempt to "de-Nazify" the country. Kolykhaiev continued to supervise Kherson's public utilities until his arrest on June 28. His whereabouts remain unknown.
According to the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, 407 forced disappearances and arbitrary arrests of civilians were recorded in areas seized by Russia in the first six months of the war. Most were civil servants, local councilors, civil society activists and journalists.
Yulia Gorbunova, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the abuse "violates international law and may constitute a war crime," adding that Russian forces' actions appeared to be aimed at "obtaining information and instilling fear." The U.N. human rights office has warned repeatedly that arbitrary detentions and forced disappearances are among possible war crimes committed in Ukraine. Several mayors have been killed, shocking Ukrainian society. Following the discovery of mass burials in areas recaptured by Kyiv, Ukrainian and foreign investigators continue to uncover details of extrajudicial killings of mayors. The body of Olga Sukhenko, who headed the village of Motyzhyn, near Kyiv, was found in a mass grave next to those of her husband and son after Russian forces retreated. The village, with a prewar population of about 1,000, is a short drive from Bucha, which saw hundreds of civilians killed under Russian occupation.
Residents said Sukhenko had refused to cooperate with the Russians. When her body was unearthed on the outskirts of Motyzhyn, her hands were found tied behind her back. Mayor Yurii Prylypko of nearby Hostomel was gunned down in March while handing out food and medicine. The prosecutor general's office later said his body was found rigged with explosives. Ukraine's government has tried to swap captive officials for Russian POWs, but officials complain that Moscow sometimes demands Kyiv release hundreds for each Ukrainian in a position of authority, prolonging negotiations.
"It's such a difficult job that any superfluous word can get in the way of our exchange," said Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's human rights commissioner. "We know the places where prisoners are kept, as well as the appalling conditions in which they are kept."There has been no news about the fate of Ivan Samoydyuk, the deputy mayor of Enerhodar, site of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Samoydyuk, abducted in March, has repeatedly been considered for a prisoner swap, but his name was struck off the list each time, Mayor Dmytro Orlov told the AP.
The 58-year-old deputy mayor was seriously ill when seized, Orlov said, and "we don't even know if he's alive." At best, Samoydyuk is sitting in a basement somewhere "and his life depends on the whim of people with guns," he added. More than 1,000 Enerhodar residents, including dozens of workers at Zaporizhzhia, Europe's largest nuclear plant, were detained by the Russians at one time or another.
"The vast majority of those who came out of the Russian cellars speak of brutal beatings and electric shocks," he said. Gorbunova, the HRW senior researcher, said torture "is prohibited under all circumstances under international law, and, when connected to an armed conflict, constitutes a war crime and may also constitute a crime against humanity." Each week brings reports of abductions of officials, engineers, doctors and teachers who won't cooperate with the Russians. Viktor Marunyak, head of the village of Stara Zburivka in the southern Kherson region, is famous for appearing in Roman Bondarchuk's 2015 documentary "Ukrainian Sheriffs," an Academy Award contender. The film explores the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine that began in 2014. While the film didn't win an Oscar, it cemented Marunyak's salt-of-the-earth reputation. After Russian troops seized Stara Zburivka in spring, Marunyak held pro-Ukrainian rallies and hid some activists in his home. He was eventually taken prisoner.
"At first, they put (electrical) wires on my thumbs. Then it seemed not enough for them, and they put them on my big toes. And they poured water on my head so it would flow down my back," he told the AP. "Honestly, I was so beaten up that I didn't have any impressions from the electric current."
After 23 days, Marunyak was "released to die," he said. Hospitalized for 10 days with pneumonia and nine broken ribs, he finally left for territory controlled by Kyiv. History professor Hubertus Jahn of Cambridge University said that from the time of Peter the Great onward, the tactic by imperialist Russia of co-opting locals targeted elites and nobility, with resistance often bringing Siberian exile. During World War II, he said, "German SS units operated in a similar way," by targeting local administrators in order to pressure residents into submission. Jahn called it an obvious strategy "if you don't have the strength to subordinate a region outright."Historian Ivan Patryliuk of Kyiv's Taras Shevchenko National University said municipal authorities in Soviet Ukraine often fled before Nazi occupation forces arrived, which "helped avoid mass executions of officials.""The kind of torture and humiliation (of) city leaders that the Russians are now perpetrating ... is one of the darkest and most shameful pages of the current war," Patryliuk said.

Zelenskiy says he will not take part in G20 summit if Putin does
KYIV (Reuters)November 03/2022
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday he would not take part in a summit in Indonesia of the Group of 20 major economies if Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin attends. Zelenskiy told reporters after talks in Kyiv with Greece's president that he had been invited to participate in the Nov. 15-16 summit by Indonesian President Joko Widodo. "My personal position and the position of Ukraine was that if the leader of the Russian Federation takes part, then Ukraine will not take part. We'll see what it will be like in the future," he said. The Ukrainian president said earlier on Thursday that he had spoken to Widodo by telephone and discussed preparations for the G20 Summit as well as the Black Sea grain deal. Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The war now in its ninth month has killed thousands, displaced millions and destroyed towns and cities. Moscow describes its actions as a special military operation.

Russian ambassador has 'evidence' UK special forces involved in attack on Black Sea fleet
Sky News/November 03/2022
Russia's ambassador to the UK has claimed Britain played a role in an attack on its warships - warning the country is "too deep" in the Ukraine war. In an interview with Sky's Mark Austin, top diplomat Andrei Kelin claimed he had proof that UK special forces were involved in a Ukrainian drone assault on Russia's Black Sea fleet in Crimea and had handed 'evidence' to the British ambassador. Asked to provide evidence of Russia's claims, Mr Kelin said: "We perfectly know about [the] participation of British specialists in [the] training, preparation and execution of violence against the Russian infrastructure and the Russian fleet in the Black Sea. We know that it has been done."Putin 'weakened' after 'catastrophic error' - latest updates
Pressed to give evidence to the public on Moscow's accusation the attack on the Russian fleet in the Black Sea was carried out under the guidance and leadership of British Navy specialists, Mr Kelin said it had been handed to the British ambassador and added that "it will become public pretty soon," perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow. He added: "It is dangerous because it escalates the situation. It can bring us up to the line of I would say no return, return is always possible. But anyway, we should avoid escalation. "And this is a warning actually that Britain is too deep in this conflict. It means the situation is becoming more and more dangerous. Claims designed to distract from military failures, UK says
The UK government has said such claims are false and are designed to distract from Russia's military failures in Ukraine. A spokesperson said: "In recent days, Russia has made a range of allegations against the UK, clearly designed to distract attention from Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine; Russia's losses on the battlefield and its bombing of civilian populations and energy infrastructure without any regard for international law and the loss of innocent life. "We do not plan to give a running commentary on these allegations; it is no secret that the United Kingdom has taken a public lead in our support to Ukraine - this has been enduring since Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014."Moscow has cast Britain as a particularly insidious Western foil to Russia. President Vladimir Putin has said the UK is plotting to destroy Russia and carve up its vast natural resources.
Ambassador denies Moscow would use nuclear weapons
Speaking after Russia accused the West of "encouraging provocations with weapons of mass destruction", Mr Kelin denied Moscow would use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Mr Kelin said: "The nuclear war cannot be won and it should never be fought. And we stick strongly to this statement." Asked if Moscow could use a tactical nuclear weapon in the conflict, Mr Kelin replied: "No. The world has every assurance that Russia is not going to use [a] tactical nuclear weapon in [the] Ukrainian conflict."Moscow has been ramping up its nuclear rhetoric since it invaded Ukraine, most recently by accusing Kyiv of planning to use a "dirty bomb," though it did not offer evidence. Kyiv has denied it has any such plan. The Russian Foreign Ministry said it feared the five declared nuclear powers were teetering "on the brink of a direct armed conflict". It added: "We are strongly convinced that in the current complicated and turbulent situation, caused by irresponsible and impudent actions aimed at undermining our national security, the most immediate task is to avoid any military clash of nuclear powers."

Ukraine capable of retaking Kherson from Russia -Pentagon chief
Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali/Reuters/November 03/2022
Ukrainian forces can retake the strategic southern city of Kherson from Russian troops, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday, in what would be a major defeat for Russia in its invasion of its neighbor. Austin's remarks coincided with a Russian-installed official in Kherson region saying Moscow was likely to pull its troops from the west bank of the Dnipro River, signaling a significant retreat, if confirmed. Ukraine said it was still fighting in the area and was wary of the occupying Russian forces setting a trap. Austin did not answer a question about whether Russian forces were preparing to leave. But, in perhaps his most optimistic comments yet on the Ukrainian counter-offensive, expressed confidence in their ability to beat back Russian forces. "On the issue of whether the Ukrainians can take the remaining territory on the west side of the Dnipro river and in Kherson, I certainly believe that they have the capability to do that," Austin told a news conference at the Pentagon. "Most importantly, the Ukrainians believe they have the capability to do that. We have seen them engage in a very methodical but effective effort to take back their sovereign territory."The region's capital and river port Kherson is the only big city Russia has captured intact since its invasion began on Feb. 24. The area the Ukrainians are seeking to retake on the west bank of the river also includes one side of a huge dam across the Dnipro which controls the water supply to irrigate Crimea, the peninsula Russia has occupied since 2014.
Russia has fought for months to hang on to the pocket of land it holds on the west bank at the mouth of the Dnipro river that bisects Ukraine. Moscow had sent tens of thousands of troops to reinforce the area, one of its biggest battlefield priorities. Ukraine has targeted the main river crossings for months, making it difficult for Russia to supply its huge force on the west bank. Ukrainian troops have been advancing along the river since bursting through the Russian frontline at the start of October, although their advance had slowed. (Reporting by Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali and Rami Ayyub; Editing by Chris Reese and Grant McCool)

Russian lawmaker who called for an end to Ukraine war injured in mysterious circumstances, reports say
Business Insider/November 03/2022
Russian lawmaker Anatoly Karpov received serious head injuries outside the State Duma, per multiple reports.
In April, Karpov said he hoped the Ukraine-Russia war would end soon.
A string of Russian officials have died in mysterious ways since the invasion of Ukraine began..
A top Russian lawmaker who has called for an end to the war in Ukraine suffered serious head injuries outside Moscow's State Duma and was placed in an artificial coma, according to multiple reports. State-controlled outlet RIA Novosti reported that State Duma Deputy Anatoly Karpov, 71, accidentally fell and was taken to the hospital late on October 29, citing a source familiar with the situation. However, there have been varying and contradictory accounts of what happened to Karpov, who is also a former chess grandmaster. On Monday, Andrei Kovalyov, chair of the All-Russian Movement of Entrepreneurs, suggested it was the work of an unknown attacker. He wrote on Telegram: "I hope the scoundrel will be found." But Karpov's daughter, Sofya, said that it was an accident, news channel Mash reported. Karpov's spokesperson Albert Stepanyan denied he had been injured at all, saying: "There was no attack ... there are no injuries," state media outlet TASS reported. Subsequent reporting suggested Karpov had serious injuries. He was taken to the neurocritical care unit at the Sklifosovsky Institute in Moscow with a fractured femur and severe head injuries, per RIA Novosti. As of Wednesday he was doing well but still in the hospital, TVzvezda reported. According to Mash, Karpov was put in an artificial coma after he was diagnosed with a brain contusion and blood hemorrhaging. Insider was unable to independently verify the reports. Karpov is considered a loyalist of President Vladimir Putin, but made remarks on a Kazakh TV station in April calling for an end to the war in Ukraine "so that peaceful people would stop dying," he said, according to a translation by the MailOnline. "In the end ordinary people are the victims," he continued. "Ordinary people fight, politicians and generals decide, and ordinary people fight, civilians die."
Karpov's injuries are the latest in a string of untoward events surrounding high-profile Russians. So far in 2022, more than a dozen oligarchs and top executives — especially those connected to the country's energy industries — have died in extraordinary ways, although there is no formal evidence connecting the events. The deaths have been attributed by officials variously as suspected suicides and murder-suicides, accidental falls, heart attacks and strokes, and freak accidents such as falling off a boat or being swept out to sea.

G7 foreign ministers set to grapple with Ukraine war, China
Associated Press/November 03/2022
Top diplomats from the world's major industrialized democracies will grapple with the implications of Russia's war in Ukraine, China's growing economic clout and aims on Taiwan and Iran's treatment of anti-government protesters when they open two days of talks in Germany this week.
Meeting in the western German city of Munster, foreign ministers from the Group of Seven nations — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — will take stock of the situation in Ukraine nearly a year after they first banded together to warn Russia of "massive consequences" if it went ahead with plans to invade the former Soviet republic that some believed were exaggerated at the time. Since that warning was delivered — two months before the invasion was actually launched — the G-7 nations have largely followed through with their vow to punish Russia, although the sanctions have done little to deter Moscow, which has instead escalated its attacks targeting civilian infrastructure, sent more troops, claimed to have annexed areas of Ukraine and raised the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons. One looming crisis the ministers had expected to address at the meeting was averted Wednesday when Russia agreed to resume a wartime agreement that allowed Ukrainian grain and other commodities to reach world markets. But, there remain other troubling aspects to the Ukraine situation, including energy supplies, Russian claims that Ukraine is preparing to use a so-called "dirty bomb" and suggestions it might respond with nukes. Senior Biden U.S. officials traveling with Blinken said they expected the discussions on Thursday and Friday in Munster's town hall — which local officials say was last used for an international diplomatic event in 1648 when the Treaty of Westphalia was signed ending the 30 Years War — to reaffirm G-7 "alignment and consistency" on Ukraine and a number of other issues. Those include joint approaches to China, which has sided with Russia over Ukraine while also seeking to boost investments in critical and sensitive infrastructure in the West, and Iran, which in addition to conducting a brutal crackdown on protesters is accused of supplying Russia with armed drones and possibly other weapons for use in Ukraine.
In maintaining that unity, the G-7 has had to weather numerous major changes since the foreign ministers issued their stark pre-war ultimatum to the Kremlin last December in Liverpool, England: Britain is on its third prime minister, there's a new right-wing government in Italy, relations between Germany and France have frayed and control of the U.S. Congress may be about to shift with potential implications for Ukraine policy. The G-7 discussions will look at holding the bloc together in the face of the Ukraine conflict, which has exacerbated global shortages of food and energy as famine looms in parts of Africa and winter approaches in Europe. Europe is now considering moving forward with price caps on Russian energy imports aimed at further stifling Russia's income in what some hope might help convince the Kremlin to stop the fighting and engage in diplomacy.
"There's a lot of common positions and solidarity, I think, within Europe, within the United States, in terms of the need to support Ukraine's heroic efforts to stand up to this invasion by Russia," said Howard Solomon, a senior official in the State Department's European affairs bureau. On China, which has disappointed the West by siding with Russia over Ukraine, U.S. officials said the G-7 would be looking to further harmonize their policies related to Chinese investment in their countries as well to caution against antagonistic moves that Beijing might take against Taiwan.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will soon be visiting Beijing — the first European leader to make the trip since the Ukraine war began — as Chinese investment in a major port project in Germany has raised concerns in Washington and other capitals that China might gain a controlling interest in critical infrastructure in the heart of an allied country. U.S. officials said they were pleased that the contract had been amended to reduce China's stake in the Hamburg port to a minority position but said it was important that all nations look carefully at proposed Chinese investments and the potential security threats they might bring. Scholz has pledged to use his trip to make the case for Chinese moderation and assistance in calming the situations with Ukraine and Taiwan."There seems to be a growing unity in terms of positions and approaches" on China, Solomon said.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on November 03-04/2022
Germany Selling Critical Infrastructure to China
Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/November 03/2022
On October 26, Germany's government decided to let the Chinese state-owned enterprise COSCO Shipping Ports, which has links to China's People's Liberation Army, buy a stake in the Port of Hamburg.
The port of Hamburg is Germany's largest port and the second-largest port in Europe, making it part of Europe's most critical infrastructure.
Germany's Foreign Ministry had also reportedly warned that an investment by COSCO "disproportionately expands China's strategic influence on German and European transport infrastructure as well as Germany's dependence on China... while China itself does not allow Germany to participate in Chinese ports. In this respect, the acquisition of the container terminal does not only have an economic, but especially a geopolitical aspect." — dw.com. October 26, 2022.
The Foreign Ministry clearly fears that in a time of crisis between the countries, China's investment in the port would allow it "to possibly instrumentalize part of Germany's – and therefore Europe's – critical infrastructure."
"Cosco already owns stakes in Europe's two largest ports at Rotterdam and Antwerp...." — Politico, October 20, 2022.
"COSCO's status as an important backbone SOE [state-owned enterprise] means that it's uniquely beholden to the CCP in a way that other SOEs aren't... COSCO's organisational structure includes paramilitary capabilities that can be mobilised by the Chinese regime to defeat threats to the CCP's interests. One such capability is the company's in-house militia..." — Report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
"[S]ome naval analysts to refer to COSCO as the fifth arm of the PLAN [People Liberation Army Navy]" — Naval War College Review, Winter 2019.
"Against the advice of his ministers, the chancellor apparently wants to increase dependence on China. This sell-out of German infrastructure would be a mistake. German ports do not belong in Chinese hands, especially since Europeans can't take a stake in ports in China." — Jens Spahn, Christian Democratic Union party, Twitter, October 20, 2022.
Out of 95 ports, 22 are in Europe, 20 in the Middle East and North Africa, 18 in the Americas, 18 in South and Southeast Asia, and nine in sub-Saharan Africa. Just three Chinese companies, among them COSCO Shipping Ports, account for the operations of 81% of those ports.
In Greece, COSCO has completely taken over Piraeus, Greece's largest port.
Scholz, regardless of the hard lessons that Germany has had to learn with regard to German dependence on Russian gas, has a state visit to China coming up in early November with a German business delegation; letting the COSCO deal fall through would not look good while trying to attract lucrative business deals. China is a key trading partner for Germany: In 2021, it was Germany's top trading partner for the sixth consecutive year.
"It is in their [Communist Chinese Party's] interest that we are divided. It's in our interest that we are united." — Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Axios, October 21, 2022.
"We've been naive because we considered... that Europe was an open supermarket." The EU, needs to establish a framework on what it considers "sensitive points." — French President Emmanuel Macron, The Telegraph, October 21, 2022.
Germany's government has decided to let China's state-owned COSCO Shipping Ports, which has links to the People's Liberation Army, buy a stake in the Port of Hamburg -- despite opposition from all six ministries that have been involved in reviewing the deal and have rejected it because the deal concerns critical infrastructure. Pictured: COSCO Shipping Corporation's container ship Xin Lian Yun Gang is unloaded at the Port of Hamburg on October 26, 2022. (Photo by Axel Heimken/AFP via Getty Images)
Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz has apparently learned nothing from Germany's fatal mistake of becoming dependent on Russian gas.
On October 26, Germany's government decided to let the Chinese state-owned enterprise COSCO Shipping Ports, which has links to China's People's Liberation Army, buy a stake in the Port of Hamburg. COSCO is the world's third-largest container carrier measured by capacity, and the fifth-largest port terminal operator in terms of the amount of cargo and vessels that it handles, according to German think-tank Merics. The Port of Hamburg is Germany's largest port and the second-largest port in Europe, making it part of Europe's most critical infrastructure.
The deal will let COSCO have a 24.9% stake in the port and is a compromise following a dispute within the government between Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz and six of his government ministers. The original plan was to give COSCO a 35% stake in the port, in addition to taking over shares in the port operator Hamburger Hafen und Logistik (HHLA).
Scholz wanted to forge ahead despite opposition to the deal from all six ministries that have been involved in reviewing the deal and have rejected it because the deal concerns critical infrastructure. Instead, Scholz was looking for a "compromise" so the deal could still go ahead, which Scholz has now managed to accomplish.
The original deal was made back in September 2021, but subject to regulatory approval. Prior to the deal, the European Commission reportedly warned Germany not to approve COSCO taking the 35% stake in Hamburg's port, saying that sensitive information could reach China if it did.
"We have learned that dependencies from countries which then might use their own interests in order to blackmail us are no longer just an abstract phenomenon," German Economy Minister Robert Habeck, who opposed the deal, said. "We shouldn't repeat these mistakes."
Germany's Foreign Ministry had also reportedly warned that an investment by COSCO "disproportionately expands China's strategic influence on German and European transport infrastructure as well as Germany's dependence on China... considerable risks... arise when elements of European transport infrastructure are influenced and controlled by China — while China itself does not allow Germany to participate in Chinese ports. In this respect, the acquisition of the container terminal does not only have an economic, but especially a geopolitical aspect."
The Foreign Ministry clearly fears that in a time of crisis between the countries, China's investment in the port would allow it "to possibly instrumentalize part of Germany's – and therefore Europe's – critical infrastructure."
Marcel Fratzscher, the head of the German Institute for Economic Research denounced the compromise:
"The German government is repeating the mistake of many previous federal governments by prioritizing short-term economic interests over long-term prosperity and prosperity and stability."
According to Politico:
"The acquisition is part of a broader strategic gambit by Beijing to gain control over infrastructure critical to its globe-spanning Belt and Road trade initiative, a network of transport connections intended to link China's factories with rich Western markets.
"Cosco already owns stakes in Europe's two largest ports at Rotterdam and Antwerp, while it also controls the port of Piraeus in Athens and is behind a scheme to expand an inland rail terminal at Duisburg where the Ruhr and the Rhine rivers meet and which is a focal point for overland freight arriving from China's industrial hubs."
In China, COSCO is designated as one of 53 "important backbone state-owned enterprises," according to a February 2021 report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. The report states:
"COSCO's status as an important backbone SOE [state-owned enterprise] means that it's uniquely beholden to the CCP in a way that other SOEs aren't... COSCO's organisational structure includes paramilitary capabilities that can be mobilised by the Chinese regime to defeat threats to the CCP's interests. One such capability is the company's in-house militia..."
Furthermore, COSCO has been described as the People Liberation Army Navy's (PLAN's) "leading supplier, providing Beijing with built-in shore-based support for the PLAN through a commercial enterprise structured to align with Chinese naval strategy, to an extent that leads some naval analysts to refer to COSCO as the fifth arm of the PLAN."
Several members of Germany's government coalition, which consists of the Green Party, the Free Democrat Party (FDP), and Scholz's Social Democrat Party (SPD) had denounced the proposed deal with COSCO.
Green Party Co-Chair Ricarda Lang said that Germany "should learn from mistakes and not create new dependencies" and that she has "no understanding" of why Scholz would move ahead with the deal when relevant government ministries have criticized it.
"The Chinese Communist Party must not have access to our country's critical infrastructure," FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai said. "That would be mistake and a risk."
The opposition also criticized the deal.
"Against the advice of his ministers, the chancellor apparently wants to increase dependence on China," Jens Spahn of the center-right Christian Democratic Union party said. "This sell-out of German infrastructure would be a mistake. German ports do not belong in Chinese hands, especially since Europeans can't take a stake in ports in China."
China declared as its ambition in 2012 that it wishes to become a global "maritime power" and China's investments in and ownership of ports worldwide should be seen as part of achieving this ambition by expanding its global maritime reach. As of July 2020, Chinese firms reportedly "(partly) owned or operated some ninety-five ports across the globe."
Out of the 95 ports, 22 are in Europe, 20 in the Middle East and North Africa, 18 in the Americas, 18 in South and Southeast Asia, and nine in sub-Saharan Africa. Just three Chinese companies, among them COSCO Shipping Ports, account for the operations of 81% of those ports.
According to an April 2022 report from Clingendael, a Dutch think-tank:
"Chinese state-owned companies such as COSCO and China Merchants, as well the Hong Kong based private firm Hutchison, have invested in most of Europe's largest ports."
In Greece, COSCO has completely taken over Piraeus, Greece's largest port.
"In many instances these investments are in container terminals. The exception is Piraeus, Greece's largest port. In this case, COSCO took a majority stake not only in a container terminal, but also in the port authority that operates the whole port, including activities such as cruise and ferry shipping."
China's investments in various European ports can also be used to play the ports against each other. Hans-Jörg Heims, a spokesman for HHLA, which COSCO is supposed to take shares in according to the deal, had argued that unless the deal was allowed to go through, Hamburg would be disadvantaged compared to the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp, competitors with the port of Hamburg that are already partly owned by COSCO.
"Our competitors Rotterdam and Antwerp will be very pleased if this deal falls through," Heims told Politico.
China's port investments create obvious leverage for the country and increase international dependence on China. Scholz, regardless of the hard lessons that Germany has had to learn with regard to German dependence on Russian gas, has a state visit to China coming up in early November with a German business delegation; letting the COSCO deal fall through would not look good when trying to attract lucrative business deals. China is an key trading partner for Germany: In 2021, it was Germany's top trading partner for the sixth consecutive year.
Some EU leaders, who say that Scholz should not be making separate deals with China and that the EU should speak with a "single voice" to China, have criticized Scholz's upcoming trip.
"It is in their interest that we are divided. It's in our interest that we are united," Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said. Latvia's Prime Minister said the EU must take a "united approach to China."
Even French President Emmanuel Macron appeared to be criticizing Scholz, who will be the first Western leader to visit China since the start of the Covid pandemic.
"We have made strategic errors in the past with the sale of infrastructures to China," Macron said. "We've been naive because we considered that there was a public-finance issue to fix -- and that Europe was an open supermarket." The EU, Macron concluded, needs to establish a framework on what it considers "sensitive points."
*Judith Bergman, a columnist, lawyer and political analyst, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2022 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in Iraq’s New Cabinet...It remains to be seen whether the Iraqi honeymoon continues.
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/The National Interest//November 03/2022
A year after holding its parliamentary election and two months after a quick round of civil war, Iraq finally got a new cabinet that is—like everything else in Iraqi politics—full of surprises. Despite the dominance of the pro-Iran blocs, the new cabinet also has patriotic and law-abiding ministers with whom America can work to continue building the Iraqi state’s capacity and developing its nascent democracy.
The 2021 election resulted in a rout for pro-Iran lawmakers and a sweeping victory for anti-militia Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr. But Sadr’s amateurism prompted him to instruct his bloc, then the biggest, to resign. Iran and former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki jumped at the opportunity and got their losing candidates sworn in as replacements, thus forming the biggest bloc and dictating cabinet formation.
On October 13, Muhammad Shiya al-Sudani got the call to form a cabinet. Iraqi pundits argued that Sudani was chosen because he was a “second-tier” politician who could be bossed around by his pro-Iran parliamentary bloc.
Sudani’s top supporter has been Maliki and his State of Law bloc. Since he was trounced in 2014, Maliki has been obsessed with taking back the premiership. His support of Sudani has thus made many believe that the former premier was looking for a seat warmer until he could stage his comeback.
Sudani’s cabinet lineup, however, suggested that he might not be, after all, in Maliki or Tehran’s pocket, as he has been so far thought to be.
Sudani kept Kurdish Fouad Hussein, a holdover from the previous cabinet, as foreign minister. Defense was given to the Sunni bloc’s Thabit al-Abbasi. Surprisingly, however, Shia general Abdul-Amir al-Shummari was appointed minister of the interior.
The Interior Ministry handles the payroll of the pro-Iran militias, which operate under an umbrella organization known as the Popular Mobilization Units (PMUs), at an annual cost of $2 billion. Shummari, however, is a military career officer who has little appreciation of the ragtag militias. In 2015, he went as far as ordering the storming of the headquarters of Kataeb Hezbollah, Iran’s flagship militia in Iraq.
In his ministerial platform, Sudani promised to make available all the resources possible to develop and empower the national army and federal police, describing the two agencies as “the guarantors of civil peace, national security and law enforcement,” a clear swipe at the pro-Iran militias, which assign to themselves such roles. Sudani did not go as far as promising to disband and disarm the controversial pro-Iran militias, but appointing Shummari and throwing his lot behind government forces might make the PMUs, and Tehran behind them, nervous.
Sudani, however, did offer Iran and its militias a consolation prize. Ahmad al-Asadi, a longtime protégé of Tehran and a former PMU spokesperson and commander of the Jund al-Imam militia, was appointed labor minister. Al-Asadi, who visited the United States in 2015 to rally support for PMUs among Iraqi Americans, has been politically mercurial, often switching positions to serve his personal interests. Whether he will serve as Tehran’s asset inside the Iraqi cabinet remains to be seen.
Another bright spot in the new Iraqi cabinet is its treasurer, Minister of Finance Tayf Sami. First employed at the ministry in 1985, Sami has climbed the ranks and won several epithets, including Iron Woman and “Sit Makou Flous,” Iraqi dialect for “Lady No Money.” Sami has become famous for her honesty, austerity, and standing up to corrupt practices and staff. She has received several threats and—at one time—saw her house surrounded by thugs and militiamen.
But as if to counterbalance Lady No Money, Sudani appointed another woman, Maliki’s ally Hiyam Kazem, as telecom minister.
As a lawmaker since 2010, Sudani has tried to take on the three telecom companies that operate Iraq’s cell phone network, accusing them of corruption. Yet giving the portfolio to an ally of Maliki, who is associated with embezzlement of public funds and other corruption, threatens Sudani’s own anti-corruption pet project.
In his platform, Sudani seems to have overpromised. He offered an ambitious plan of holding early elections in a year, with a new electoral law approved in three months, which is a tall order given Iraq’s messy politics.
Sudani also offered original economic thinking, including plans to wean Iraq off its oil revenue and grow a competitive private sector that can rely on a young and educated population. Over 40 percent of Iraqis are between the ages of ten and twenty-nine.
Buoyed by a bullish oil market and with government revenues averaging $10 billion a month, Iraq has been running surpluses. To switch the economy from oil rent to services, in a year, sounds like a hill that is too steep to climb.
With the Tehran regime busy putting out domestic fires sparked by its abuse of anti-hijab protesters, Iraq got its break. It formed a new cabinet sixteen days before Sudani’s mandate to form a government expired. Parliament gathered without militia rockets raining on and around it.
It remains to be seen, however, whether the Iraqi honeymoon continues and Baghdad benefits from the likes of Shummari and Sami, or if things go south and Maliki’s allies win the day.
*Hussain Abdul-Hussain is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy. Follow Hussain on Twitter @hahussain.

Biden Administration Backs Qatar Lobby
Armin Rosen/The Tablet/November 03/2022
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/biden-administration-backs-qatar-lobby-elliott-broidy-armin-rosen
When Elliott Broidy sued Qatari lobbyists for allegedly hacking his private emails, the foreign agents responded by going after Americans—many of them Jews—critical of Qatar. Guess who the Justice and State departments appear to be siding with?
Beginning in 2018, Elliott Broidy, a venture capitalist and former deputy finance chair of the Republican National Committee, sued the Qatari government and the former pro-Qatar lobbyists Nick Muzin, Joey Allaham, and Gregory Howard (all registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act), claiming that the Gulf emirate and its American hirelings had coordinated the theft and dissemination of his private emails. The suit also claims that some of the lobbyists had knowledge of the hacking and strategized the promotion of its contents among members of the media. Qatar is no longer a party in the case, but the lawsuit reflects the belief among Broidy and his allies that they can prove the Qatari government was responsible for the email theft—citing forensic analysis of the hack and its origins, along with a larger social and business nexus connecting the source of the hack to specific officials in Qatar. Muzin, Allaham, and Howard are accused of formulating a strategy for spreading the hacked material through the American media in full knowledge of how it was obtained.
The stolen Broidy emails showed that after Donald Trump’s inauguration, the RNC official began pursuing substantial business interests in the United Arab Emirates with the help of UAE-linked political consultants in Washington. Broidy, who had long been active in pro-Israel causes, also donated to various organizations that were scrutinizing Qatari support for Islamist movements, mostly through journalism and think tank-produced conferences and research. At the time, the UAE was part of a Saudi-led group of countries that sought to isolate Qatar over its backing of the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Islamist organization that most of the other Gulf States saw as their leading internal security threat. The emails were an uncomfortably raw look into the various political, social, and business relationships that Broidy maintained in Washington. In October of 2020, Broidy pleaded guilty to what the Department of Justice described as “back-channel lobbying” on behalf of interests in China and Malaysia. Trump pardoned him during his last day in the White House.
Broidy’s lawsuit against Qatar itself was dismissed in August of 2018 on sovereign immunity grounds—Americans have the right to sue a foreign government on U.S. soil only under very limited circumstances. But the case against Qatar’s former lobbyists continues. Earlier this year, the three lobbyists countered by issuing far-reaching subpoenas to nearly two-dozen figures in the U.S. Jewish, pro-Israel, and foreign policy communities. Tablet has obtained these subpoenas, and interviewed several recipients for this article. Many of the subpoenas were sent to groups and individuals who were, as one target put it, “somewhere between a third party and a bystander” to the lawsuit—in other words, people who could not have been reasonably expected to possess information about Broidy’s hacking allegations. But they were all either opposed to Qatar’s support for Islamist groups, or had been publicly linked to people, groups, or activities that were critical of Qatar.
The subpoenas Tablet reviewed are fairly expansive, making them onerous, costly, and time-consuming for both the filers and recipients to address. According to Broidy’s 2019 amended complaint in the lawsuit, Muzin himself told a Broidy associate that fighting future subpoenas in a lawsuit over the hack could put him “in a multi-million-dollar hole.” The cost of addressing the filings as they have wound their way through the federal court system over the past nine months isn’t quite that astronomical, but it isn’t insignificant either: One recipient estimated out-of-pocket legal fees of $40,000 for attempting to comply with the order, a process that involved hiring a lawyer who then hired a contractor to analyze their email account and hard drives. “And that’s a defense based on me saying I honestly don’t have anything,” the source added.
The subpoenas have a make-work quality to them. In more than one case, the defendants’ legal teams asked journalists for “[a]ll media, articles, reports, Twitter posts, social media posts, and public statements that You, or someone on Your behalf, authored or contributed to regarding Broidy, Defendants, the alleged hacking, as well as any documents or communications relating to such publications.” The gathering of this kind of public information is something the parties in a lawsuit typically finance themselves, rather than using the federal courts to make third parties to the litigation pay for it.
“These law firms are engaged in a really despicable harassment, fishing, and lawfare campaign against people who, like me, are accused of no wrongdoing,” said the writer and activist David Reaboi, who received a subpoena from Muzin’s lawyers at a Washington, D.C., firm. “They’ve absurdly demanded my correspondence relating to the Middle East—which, as someone who’s been an analyst of that region for more than a decade, would amount to just about every work email over a period of years. Even more, they’ve demanded an accounting of every germane public tweet and article I’ve published. I’m not here to do book reports for them, or to collate my work—it’s available to anyone with an internet connection and the URL of my website. These law firms should be ashamed of themselves but, like their clients, it seems they’re incapable of shame.”
In many of the subpoenas Tablet reviewed the defense asked for information far beyond anything the recipients could reasonably have known—about Broidy’s work in Africa and Eastern Europe, for instance—putting them in the unenviable position of having to prove a series of negatives.
In some subpoenas Tablet obtained, the defense appears to be looking for sensitive information about U.S.-based groups and individuals who might have drawn unwanted attention to controversial areas of Qatari foreign policy. In a subpoena sent to the conservative nonprofit Secure America Now, the defense requested “all documents and communications regarding monetary payments or donations made or received by You, in connection with Broidy’s advocacy, lobbying, or consulting efforts relating to the State of Qatar,” and sought “all documents and communications relating to any conferences you organized, participated in, or financed regarding the State of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, or the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, involving Broidy … or any Broidy-affiliated entity.” The subpoena is specifically addressed to Allen Roth, Secure America Now’s president. He is also the longtime political adviser to Ron Lauder, the center-right Jewish philanthropist who is reported to be one of Secure America Now’s chief funders.
The purpose of the request is to discover whether Broidy himself contributed to the group, as part of the subpoena blitz’s apparent effort to build a larger picture of Broidy’s contacts and politics-related spending. But if the subpoena to Roth were fully executed—which still remains to be seen, in light of the ongoing series of protective orders and counterfilings between the parties—the effect of its requests would be for the defense to access materials that have little to do with Broidy himself. The defendants want Roth to turn over anything related to financial relationships between Broidy and Secure America Now’s wider pool of donors, along with communications with the media and government officials that touch on any topic that’s even indirectly related to Broidy’s Qatar-related spending. If satisfied, these demands would conceivably allow the defendants to pry into Lauder’s larger network, which sustains Jewish day schools across Europe and helps fund nearly every establishment Jewish institution in the United States. “Broidy’s advocacy” reportedly included pushing for naming Qatar as a financial sponsor of Hamas as part of a congressional sanctions package against the Palestinian militant group, which means the subpoena might reveal a range of private discussions related to the overall topic of Middle East politics.
Exposing Broidy’s connections in journalism, advocacy, and public policy appears to be the likely justification for probing the work and funding streams of a diverse group of activists and operatives who have never brought or considered legal action against Qatar or its agents. Many of them are longtime professionals in the Jewish or pro-Israel space. Former Republican pro-Israel congressional stalwarts Ed Royce of California and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, for example, received subpoenas. As chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee for six years, Royce helped lead efforts to pass the Broidy-supported sanctions targeting Hamas. Subpoenas also went out to several staffers at the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum. The center-right Hudson Institute received one, as did the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs’ Michael Makovsky, along with Charles Wald, a retired four-star Air Force general who once served as deputy commander of U.S. forces in Europe.
In many cases, the targets’ apparent connection to Broidy is instructively vague, and it is unclear how they could be in a position to help disprove Broidy’s hacking allegations. In 2020, The New York Times reported that Broidy paid $10,000 to a Washington firm led by the political strategist Aaron Keyak, who was responsible for Jewish outreach during Joe Biden’s successful campaign for the presidency. Keyak is currently the State Department’s deputy special envoy to combat and monitor antisemitism, and served as acting envoy until the senate confirmed Deborah Lipstadt to the position earlier this year. A subpoena was also issued to Steve Rabinowitz, Keyak’s former partner at Blue Light Strategies, a Washington strategy shop with several high-profile clients across the Jewish and Democratic Party center-left.
I asked Rabinowitz why he believes he received a broad subpoena from the defense as part of a legal proceeding in which he has no involvement whatsoever. “Because they’re idiots and assholes?” he replied, careful to clarify that he meant this as a question.
Tablet attempted to reach the three defendants for comment. “In light of the pending litigation, I am not going to comment on subpoenas issued to any specific individual or party,” Jeffrey Udell, Howard’s lawyer, wrote by email. “However, I will say the following. Elliott Broidy has issued scores of subpoenas (many directed at individuals with absolutely no relevant connection to this litigation) desperately searching for evidence to support his meritless claims, which have now been rejected by multiple courts. By contrast, Mr. Howard has issued a small number of targeted subpoenas to parties that he reasonably believes are in the possession of evidence that the Court has deemed to be highly relevant to this case and to Mr. Howard’s defenses. We look forward to the inevitable day when this matter is resolved in Mr. Howard’s favor.” Udell would not comment on whether Qatar has financed the defense of the Broidy lawsuit, or on whether any foreign actors appear to be funding the plaintiff’s side.
The subpoenas are being pursued with notable energy: In more than one case, the defendants requested that judges sanction recipients for their alleged slowness in responding to the subpoenas, a first step toward holding them in contempt of court. Filing such broad subpoenas meant that the recipients often had to spend substantial time and money challenging their scope. But such disputes rack up billable hours for the people pursuing the subpoenas, too. Civil litigation services from a firm like Wiley Rein, which is representing Muzin, Arent Fox, which is representing Allaham, or Wiley, Macht, and Haran, which is representing Howard, aren’t cheap, and even a single court motion can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
At the beginning of the year, at least one of the defendants didn’t seem to be in an obvious position to finance a drawn-out, high-end lawsuit defense. In January, Allaham and his businesses owed over $3.8 million in unpaid taxes to the state of New York, making him the state’s 12th-largest tax delinquent. By February, however, the kosher restaurateur, consultant, and real estate developer had disappeared from the state’s official monthly public ranking of tax scofflaws.
All of the half-dozen subpoena recipients contacted for this article said they believe the Qataris are funding litigation for the Broidy defendants. The Qatari government’s lawyers clearly acted to conceal their agents’ work from Broidy’s scrutiny, something that required a line of communication with the defense team. In a February 2022 nonparty filing, a lawyer representing Qatar noted that the emirate planned on reviewing documents related to the case with the defendants, working with them to establish which of their records could be considered “privileged” under the Vienna Convention governing the rights and immunities of foreign diplomatic missions. The defendants had also pushed for something more formal, too. In late 2021, the defense unsuccessfully moved to create an “immunity protocol” that would allow nonparties in the litigation to obtain, redact, and withhold documents the plaintiffs had requested.
Muzin and Allaham have a long and tangled history with Qatar. The gas-rich Gulf statelet, searching for ways to continue its support for Islamist movements across the Middle East without undermining its standing in Washington, hired Muzin, a former senior staffer for the conservative Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, as one of their lobbyists in late 2017. Muzin got to work attempting to broker meetings between Qatari offcials and American Jewish and pro-Israel leadership. This was not an easy task: At the time, the U.S. pro-Israel and Jewish institutional world tended to view the emirate as both an underwriter of Hamas’ war against Israel and a globally powerful source of skewed media coverage of the country through Al Jazeera, the then-influential Qatari state media outlet. Still ,Muzin succeeded in bringing several leading communal figures, including Malcolm Hoenlein, former vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, to Doha. When it came out that Al Jazeera had sent an undercover British national to infiltrate Jewish and pro-Israel groups in Washington, Muzin handled much of the damage control in Washington.
Allaham was one of Muzin’s partners in his effort to promote Qatar among American Jews, but didn’t file a FARA disclosure until June of 2018, several months into his work on the country’s behalf. Allaham is apparently now serving as a back channel between the governments of Israel and Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country and a close Qatari ally. Allaham “orchestrated a meeting between [Indonesian Minister of Defense Prabowo] Subianto’s personal assistant Sudaryono B. Eng and an Israeli intelligence agent in Budapest” in May of 2021, leading to “higher-level contacts, including a meeting in Paris,” according to the Jerusalem Post.
Does the United States benefit more from upholding an expansive interpretation of the Vienna Convention than it does from allowing its citizens to probe the alleged theft of their private information by foreign states?
The Broidy email hack can be understood as part of the Qataris’ campaign to gain influence in Washington. Qatar’s American strategy involves straightforward media and policy outreach—Jamaal Khashoggi’s columns in The Washington Post were “shaped” by a consultant for the Qatar Foundation, and the emirate gave millions of dollars to the arch-establishment Brookings Institution. But Qatar allegedly considered the reputations and privacy of its perceived opponents to be in play as well, whether this meant potentially exposing Broidy to the humiliation of an email leak, or a senior Biden administration staffer to the time and money-consuming ordeal of responding to a federal subpoena. The hack and the subpoenas expose not just Broidy, but also anyone who ever worked or even communicated with him. As one subpoena recipient put it, “They are trying to influence American politics by character assassinating people they disagree with, and by hacking emails and releasing them to the public they are destroying any private space that enables compromise among extreme positions.”
Jews are caught in the crossfire, treated as the decisive swing-vote in terms of building support in Washington. This is probably a delusion on the part of Qatar or the UAE or anyone else who still sees the American Jewish establishment as the key to much of anything. American Jews are as flummoxed by the current state of U.S. politics as anyone else—it is doubtful that organized pro-Israel opposition can stop the United States from reentering the Iran nuclear deal, for example. AIPAC, whose annual policy conference once prided itself on being the last true bipartisan forum in Washington, radically changed tactics over the past election cycle and became an unapologetic campaign spender. As an embattled fundraiser for a historically unpopular one-term president, Broidy is a living embodiment of the poor explanatory power of any theory of American government that hinges on wealthy, pro-Israel Jews.
Whatever false idea of American society convinced the Qataris to both court and harass pro-Israel Jewish activists and organizations was misguided in 2015. In 2022, a preoccupation with the Jews can be seen not only as evidence of conspiratorial thinking, but as a sign of desperation—a flailing reaction to just how limited the options are for reaching a hyperpolarized American public or the small circle of actual decision-makers in government, whose process for formulating American foreign policy is increasingly secretive, ineffective, and dysfunctional.
In an August filing, the U.S. government, which is not a party to the Broidy case, stated its support for Qatar’s position that its former agents should be protected from the plaintiff’s requests for potentially sensitive documents.
The state of Qatar was dropped as a defendant in Broidy’s lawsuit in 2018, when their lawyers successfully argued that the government they represented cannot be sued in U.S. court, thanks to the broad legal protections foreign states enjoy under America’s Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. In a series of so far less successful filings, Allaham, Muzin, and Howard’s lawyers claimed that Qatar’s sovereign immunity extended to its American contractors, too. If the court bought this argument, it would have meant that FARA-registered lobbyists enjoyed similar legal protections to diplomats, making it difficult for U.S. citizens to bring civil actions against other Americans if the alleged wrongdoing was carried out in the course of their work as registered agents of a foreign government.
When that contention failed, lawyers for both the defense and Qatar argued that even if the lobbyists could be sued, documents and communications related to their work for the Qatari government was entitled to the same robust and almost impenetrable legal immunity as any other diplomatic activity. On Aug. 26, the U.S. government filed an amicus brief partially backing Qatar’s request that the judge in the case reverse his decision granting Broidy’s discovery demands in the suit. The government claimed that granting Broidy’s requests would threaten to make the United States violate its international legal obligations: In allowing Broidy to obtain the materials he wanted from the defendants related to their work on Qatar’s behalf, the court was in danger of trespassing on Qatar’s rights under Article 24 of the Vienna Convention, which immunizes the documents of foreign diplomatic missions. “Ensuring that federal courts honor the treaty obligations as to a foreign sovereign’s inviolable documents, both under this treaty and other international agreements, is a critical value to the United States,” the brief states. “Moreover,” it continues, granting Broidy overly broad discovery “may adversely affect the reciprocal treatment of the United States and its mission archives and documents (which could include sensitive national security and foreign policy materials) in foreign courts.” The brief is credited to Brian Boynton, a principal deputy assistant attorney general, and Richard Visek, a legal adviser at the State Department.
One can question whether the United States benefits more from upholding an expansive interpretation of the Vienna Convention than it does from allowing its citizens to probe the alleged theft of their private information by foreign states. The U.S. position looks especially questionable in light of a Nov. 2 Swiss Broadcasting Corporation report that Qatari-hired agents were in possession of hacked materials from the email account of United States Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati. But the U.S. government’s lawyers are at least right about the untenability of the larger phenomenon the lawsuit has helped reveal: American society, and possibly even the court system, is now a proxy battlefield for geopolitical opponents half a world away.
*Armin Rosen is a staff writer for Tablet magazine.

Iranian protesters will not forget West’s failure to support them
Khaled Abou Zahr/Arab News/November 03/2022
It must be satisfying to be part of the Iranian regime today. The mullahs have proven their point. They are showing that the West is corrupt, as they have claimed for decades. They are gloating. Western leaders and media outlets, who all claim to stand for freedom and fight for the good of humanity, are silent as the regime in Tehran represses its own people. Do not be mistaken; the mullahs, as evil often does, know the hypocrisy, violence and corruption of their own regime. They are finally satisfied and reassured that the West has become their great accomplice and hence the greater Satan they always wanted.
Who would have believed that, in the past 10 days, as Iranian blood is shed on the streets, with innocents being beaten, arrested and killed, the mighty Washington Post and all other media outlets would not give the story a single front page. Not even a mention of the bravery of the Iranian people. In their narrative, the mullahs are not the bad guys; the bad guys are the oil companies and their profits. What a sad world, yet it is symbolic of the entire political movement they represent.
Where are the opinion leaders in the West that call for human rights? Where are the news channels that usually cover every single protest in the Middle East by the second? Hiding in silence. Looking the other way. Not a single condemnation. This is how indoctrinated the West has become. What a corrupt and ignorant view of the world it is. In fact, it is nothing but a representation of the West. It is against this hatred that the Iranian people are protesting. It is a fight that goes beyond their own borders and reaches the capitals of the world. It is the spite, anger and jealousy represented by the Iranian regime against the hope, freedom and optimism represented by the people of Iran. Choose your side wisely.
Indeed, the people of Iran are liberty, passion and the belief in creativity, happiness and a refreshing libertarian future. In this battle, the West is standing with the oppressor. How out of touch. How corrupt. How hypocritical. This view as conveyed by the media is a direct reflection of the political landscape and echoes what politicians mainly from the left are stating. The left in the West has chosen to be the ally of the mullahs and support their crushing of hope. Ultimately, they want the same outcome in their own countries.
The best we have gotten from politicians is former US President Barack Obama stating in a podcast that he regrets not taking more action in 2009. Regrets for what happened 13 years ago; that is it. Unfortunately, there has been no action in support of the protesters, only complete silence about what is happening today. This is simply because, today, the enemy is not the mullahs’ regime, it is profits. It is free enterprise. It is free will. Don’t they realize that, for the Middle East, the front line in the war against ignorance — of moving out of the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance — is now taking place in Tehran, Tabriz and Isfahan; every single street of Iran. Or is that exactly what they want?
The people of Iran are not about to forget this. And I hope they never do. I hope they never forget that, when they needed support, the West stood silent, complicit with their butchers. The West and the mullahs today have the vulgarity of the crook that screams with indignation when he gets caught. Haven’t they noticed that the region is more peaceful without the dirty interference of this regime?
While everyone can question whether the protests will lead to regime change, the West is acting to save this regime. With insinuations that attenuate the demands of the Iranians while still pushing for a nuclear deal, they are simply throwing lifeline after lifeline to this regime. It is not about staying neutral or silent; the West wants this regime to stay.
Nevertheless, we now have the proof — if it were ever needed — that this regime is absolutely not a defender of Shiites in the Middle East, as it claims and as influential Western think tanks have been pushing for decades. Those in the West chose to believe this lie in order to serve their interests. We are now seeing that this regime has no respect and does not protect Shiites, as it does not even protect its own population. There are more than 250 deaths that prove this hypocrisy.
The left in the West has chosen to be the ally of the mullahs and support their crushing of hope.
The mullahs are also, with their aggressive policies, putting the country’s unity at risk. Iran is a great country with gifted and smart people, a great history, amazing culture and so I wish for it to keep its unity. This is why I wish for all Iranians, whether Kurds, Azeris or Balochis, to stay united and committed to their country. Not to fall into the trap of division and secession. They have the power to bring about a better future while staying as this big and strong country. Any other way would be a huge mistake.
Finally, my closest friends always accuse me of being pro-American. They would continue by saying that I cheer for Republican administrations — as most Arabs — but find excuses for Democratic ones. I will admit it. Indeed, I love the US. Today, unfortunately, I cannot understand or find excuses for the abandonment of the Iranian people. It will not be forgotten by the Iranians.
*Khaled Abou Zahr is CEO of Eurabia, a media and tech company. He is also the editor of Al-Watan Al-Arabi.